663 F.

2d 1268

27 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 137,

27 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 32,200,
27 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 32,312
Shirley BROWN and Dorothy Black and Almetta Ivey,
individually and on behalf of all others similarly
situated, Appellees,
v.
ECKERD DRUGS, INC., a corporation now merged with Jack
Eckerd Corporation, a corporation and Eckerd's Providence,
Inc. (Store # 4), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eckerd Drugs,
Inc., now merged with Jack Eckerd Corporation, Appellants.
No. 79-1821.

United States Court of Appeals,

Fourth Circuit.
Argued Nov. 11, 1980.
Decided Oct. 21, 1981.

John O. Pollard, Charlotte, N. C. (Blakeney, Alexander & Machen,

Charlotte, N. C., on brief), for appellants.
Michael A. Sheely, Charlotte, N. C. (Joyce M. Brooks, Shelley Blum,
Charlotte, N. C., on brief), for appellees.
Before BUTZNER, RUSSELL and MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judges.
MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judge:

The present appeal stems from a class action suit filed in May, 1976, by
plaintiffs Shirley Brown and Dorothy Black against Eckerd Drugs, Inc.,
charging discrimination in hiring, firing, promotion, job assignment, and
geographical assignment at its Mecklenburg County facilities, in violation of
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 2000e, et seq., and 42
U.S.C. 1981. Brown and Black complained, in addition to their class

allegations, that each had been discriminatorily terminated. Although the class
initially included rejected applicants for employment, as well as past and
present employees, the district court, after our decision in Hill v. Western
Electric Co., Inc., 596 F.2d 99 (4th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 929, 100
S.Ct. 271, 62 L.Ed.2d 186 (1979), excluded applicants from the class. After
trial, Almetta Ivey, a member of the original class who had testified at trial that
she was discriminatorily demoted from a supervisory position, was permitted to
intervene as a named plaintiff. After further modification, the class ultimately
was defined as past and present employees who claimed that the defendant
discriminated on the basis of race in connection with promotion or transfer to
management and supervisory positions in the defendant's Mecklenburg
facilities.
2

On the merits, the lower court found that the Company discriminated against
the plaintiffs and their class. In addition, Brown and Ivey prevailed on their
individual claims. Plaintiff Black, however, failed.1 Accordingly, the court
granted reinstatement and backpay to Brown and Ivey and enjoined those
promotion and transfer practices found to discriminate against minorities. On
appeal, the defendant contends that the original plaintiffs had no "standing" to
represent a class concerning claims other than discriminatory discharge; that
the district court erroneously permitted class member Ivey to intervene as a
named plaintiff a year after trial; and that the individual and class claims of
discrimination were not proved. On each issue we affirm the judgment of the
district court.

Eckerd Drugs, Inc. and its successors ("Eckerd") have operated several retail
stores and a warehouse from corporate offices in Mecklenburg County, North
Carolina. The main office employs clerical, professional and management
workers. The retail stores are run by a store manager and assistant manager,
pharmacist, fountain manager, fountain personnel and sales personnel. The
store managers report to district managers who are responsible for various
stores. The work force at the warehouse, located in the same facility as the
main office, includes stockers, receiving and shipping clerks, checkers, and
forklift and truck drivers.

The district court found that Eckerd's promotion and transfer policies, utilized
at all facilities, were few: Eckerd maintained no job descriptions for
supervisory positions, nor had it posted notices of managerial vacancies until
1978. There were no formal lines of progression into management or
supervisory jobs. No written criteria have been utilized to determine the
qualifications of a person to fill supervisory vacancies and the management
representatives responsible for filling such positions, nearly all of whom are

white, have had virtually complete discretion to fill the spots. Employees were
evaluated only irregularly and evaluation has been undertaken from memory
without benefit of written criteria. A "word of mouth" system has been
employed to notify employees of supervisory vacancies in other facilities.
Before 1976, most supervisory personnel were white,2 despite an employee
work force composed of 14% blacks (34% blacks in the retail stores).
5

In September, 1974, plaintiff Shirley Brown was employed as a keypunch

operator in the main office. In June, 1975, she left her job after several incidents
evidencing racial bias. Plaintiff Dorothy Black, hired to work in a retail store,
and subsequently promoted to fountain manager, was fired in 1975. Intervenor
Ivey was hired in 1969 to work in the main office. From 1975 until 1977 she
supervised the third party receivables department. In June of 1977, she was
demoted after training a white supervisor to take her place.

I.
6

Eckerd first contends that Brown failed to prove that she was discriminatorily
discharged, and that Ivey did not show that she was discriminatorily demoted
from a supervisory role. We have carefully examined the factual findings of the
district court with respect to Brown and Ivey. Had we been sitting as the trial
court, we might well have been inclined to find that Brown and Ivey did not
sustain their burden of persuasion. On appeal, however, our function is the very
restricted one of determining whether the district court's determination was
clearly erroneous. Where there are conflicts in the testimony, we have kept in
mind that the district court is in the best position to evaluate the witnesses'
credibility and resolve the conflicts. Upon examination of the evidence as a
whole3 and of the district court's findings of fact and law, we are not "left with
the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed." United
States v. United States Gypsum, 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 541, 92 L.Ed.
746 (1948). We therefore affirm the judgments as to the individual claims.

The proper approach was outlined by the Supreme Court in Texas Department
of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 67 L.Ed.2d
207 (1981). Burdine reaffirmed the doctrine that when a Title VII plaintiff has
established a prima facie case, the burden of production, but not persuasion,
shifts to the employer, who must show some legitimate, nondiscriminatory
reason for the employment decision. Should the employer make that showing,
the plaintiff, in order to prevail, has the burden of persuading the trier of fact
that the employer's proffered reason was pretextual. The Court further stated
that, once the employer has successfully rebutted the plaintiff's prima facie
case, the evidence previously introduced by the plaintiff can be considered by

the trier of fact on the issue of whether the employer's explanation is pretextual.
In fact, "there may be some cases where the plaintiff's initial evidence,
combined with effective cross-examination of the defendant, will suffice to
discredit the defendant's explanation." Id., at 255 n.10, 101 S.Ct. at 1095 n.10.
8

Having set forth briefly the applicable law, we now discuss in turn the Ivey and
Brown claims.

A. Ivey Claim
9

Ms. Ivey was first hired by the defendant in 1969 as an accounts payable clerk
in its main office. At that time she was the only black employee in a
supervisory position. In April, 1976, she was appointed supervisor of a new
department, third party receivables. Both the plaintiff's prima facie case and the
defendant's rebuttal rely on the details of her occupation of that position until
she was replaced by a white woman in June, 1977.

10

Ms. Ivey's performance was neither outstanding nor inadequate. On several

occasions, as late as May, 1977, her supervisor, Mr. Dale Whitworth, told her
that she was doing a good job, and that he felt she could run the department. He
also told her, however, on two occasions that he was not sufficiently satisfied
with her performance to give her a pay raise. His specific criticisms were
threefold.

11

First, Mr. Whitworth had received complaints that too much noise was coming
from the department. Ms. Ivey told him that one employee in particular was
responsible for the noise, and that the employee, who was the sister-in-law of
Mr. Whitworth's secretary, refused to listen to Ms. Ivey. Mr. Whitworth neither
fired the employee nor gave Ms. Ivey the authority to fire her. Rather, he said
he would talk to her, and told Ms. Ivey that she was responsible for controlling
her employees. His lack of effective support contrasts sharply with a similar
situation involving a white supervisor of the other plaintiff, Brown, in which
management provided strong support for the supervisor. See pp. ---- - ---- infra.

12

Second, on one occasion when Ms. Ivey was absent from the office, Mr.
Whitworth found in her desk unfinished work, including checks which had not
been deposited. When she returned to work, Mr. Whitworth asked her about the
unfinished matters, and she responded that her department was overworked and
understaffed. During the time Ms. Ivey ran the department there were never
more than three employees, as compared with the five or six Mr. Whitworth
promised when he offered her the supervisory position.

13

Finally, Ms. Ivey was unable to prepare the "outstanding balance reports"
which she was supposed to file each month. Again, she attributed the failure to
lack of staff, and Mr. Whitworth was sufficiently persuaded by her explanation
to agree in May, 1977 that he would meet with her in July to review her
performance, and that she should prepare an outstanding balance report by
then. At the same time he reiterated that her performance was good and that he
felt she was capable of running the department.

14

Against that background, two weeks after he expressed confidence in Ms. Ivey,
and well before the July, 1977 deadline for an outstanding balance report, Mr.
Whitworth informed Ms. Ivey that she was being replaced as supervisor by
Marilyn Wilkes, a white woman. Ms. Ivey helped train her replacement to the
extent of explaining the department's workings. Mr. Whitworth gave no
explanation for the demotion beyond the general statement that he felt she
could not handle the department, contrary to his confidence of two weeks
earlier. At trial he testified that Eckerd was planning to adopt a new, more
sophisticated system for controlling third party receivables, and that he did not
believe Ms. Ivey could handle the new system.

15

From these facts, the district court was justified in concluding that the plaintiff
had established a prima facie case of discrimination against Eckerd. When
hired, Ms. Ivey was the only black in the main office. As late as 1975, only
7.4% of all employees in the main office were black. She was treated less
favorably than a white supervisor when she encountered problems with a
subordinate. Finally, she was replaced by a white person despite her superior's
recently expressed confidence in her. The district court's finding that Ms. Ivey
established a prima facie case was correct.

16

The next step in the Burdine analysis is the employer's rebuttal. Eckerd met its
burden to rebut Ms. Ivey's prima facie case. Eckerd showed that Ms. Ivey was
unable to control her department's noise level, that she left uncompleted work
while she was on vacation, and that she failed to provide monthly reports in a
timely fashion. Taken together, those deficiencies could comprise legitimate
and nondiscriminatory grounds to demote Ms. Ivey.

17

In response to Eckerd's rebuttal, Ms. Ivey was entitled to show that the
proffered ground was not in fact the reason for demotion, but was merely a
pretext. She offered no additional evidence to make that showing, but additional
evidence is not required. The present case falls within the realm of Burdine's
footnote 10, p. ---- supra. Taking together all of the evidence which comprised
the plaintiff's prima facie case and the defendant's rebuttal one might

reasonably conclude, even without any additional evidence from the plaintiff,
that the deficiencies in Ms. Ivey's performance were beyond her control, that
Mr. Whitworth was aware of that fact, and that he fired her, at least in part,
because she was black. Judge McMillan reached that conclusion. Alternatively,
one might conclude that the deficiencies were the sole reason for her dismissal.
On appeal, we need not-indeed, may not-choose between the two, because the
district court's conclusion was not clearly erroneous and, therefore, must be
accepted.
18

The dissent is correct to identify language in the district court opinion which is
subject to criticism. The bald statement that Eckerd failed to rebut the prima
facie case is difficult to reconcile with the evidence. Furthermore, the court's
expressed requirement that the defendant show Ms. Ivey's replacement was as
qualified as, or more qualified than, Ms. Ivey does not follow Burdine.
However, the district court found as a fact that race was one reason for the
demotion of Ms. Ivey, and its finding was amply supported by the evidence. We
therefore affirm the court's ruling as to Ms. Ivey.

B. Brown Claim
19

Ms. Brown was employed as a keypunch operator in the defendant's main office
until June 3, 1975. Her claim is predicated on the theory of "constructive
discharge." In order to make out a prima facie case of constructive discharge,
the plaintiff must show by a preponderance of the evidence that she was forced
to quit her employment by intolerable working conditions imposed on her by
her employer, who was motivated in such imposition by racial or sex bias. See,
e. g., J. P. Stevens & Co. v. NLRB, 461 F.2d 490, 494 (4th Cir. 1972). Here,
the prima facie case rests on events which occurred at a conference held on
June 3, 1975, as well as several earlier events.

20

First, a white employee who shared Ms. Brown's work station repeatedly
bumped into her chair, in a manner Ms. Brown believed to be deliberate. The
bumping was particularly uncomfortable because Ms. Brown had recently
given birth to a child by caesarean section. On several occasions, Ms. Brown
requested that her supervisor, Penny Hart, change her work station, but Ms.
Hart refused, although there were vacant work stations at the time. She said that
she expected to make a complete reassignment of work stations in the
department, and would reassign Ms. Brown at that time. Ms. Brown, believing
her work situation intolerable, then spoke to Mel Harvey, who she believed had
authority to make the change immediately. Mr. Harvey referred her to Mr.
Straughn, Ms. Hart's supervisor, and Mr. Straughn refused to make a change.
He stated that such matters were within Ms. Hart's discretion. Ms. Brown

responded that she would not "put out a hundred percent." When Mr. Straughn
told her to "put out a hundred percent or else," Ms. Brown replied that she
would do her best, but didn't think it possible to function at full efficiency under
such circumstances. Her work station was finally changed three weeks after her
initial request.
21

Taken alone, this incident could be seen as an employer's reasonable response

to an employee's insubordination. The district court, however, found that the
work station unpleasantness was one of many incidents which, when taken
together, made Ms. Brown's working conditions intolerable. It is certainly
plausible on the district judge's part to conclude that, when a white employee
repeatedly bumps a black employee, who has recently undergone surgery, and
management fails to take immediate action to remedy the situation, the
employer is acting to make the black employee's conditions of employment
intolerable because of her race.

22

Second, Ms. Brown testified that on June 2, 1975, she observed Mr. Straughn
and others watching her work, and that, when she passed within hearing
distance she heard Mr. Straughn use the term "nigger." Eckerd emphasizes that
on no other occasion did anyone use racially objectionable language in Ms.
Brown's presence. However, this incident, like the first, is probative of the
working conditions imposed on Ms. Brown, and the racial bias of her superior.
It is relevant to, although not dispositive of, the issue of constructive discharge,
and the district court was entitled to take it into consideration.

23

Third, Ms. Brown testified that, when she returned from her maternity leave,
she was told that no changes in the computer format had been made, but in fact
there had been substantial changes, which rendered it impossible for her to
work effectively. Ms. Brown testified that she requested assistance from Ms.
Hart, and that her request was refused. Ms. Hart denied having received any
such request. The district court, which had the benefit of observing the
witnesses' demeanor as they testified, found that such a request was made, and
that finding comprises the third component of the prima facie case. Again we
might have found differently than the trial judge, but the evidence was there to
support his conclusion, which must be accepted since it was not clearly
erroneous.

24

Finally, the events which occurred during the meeting on June 3, 1975 between
Ms. Brown and her supervisors compose the final evidence in the prima facie
case. Present at the meeting were Ms. Brown, Ms. Hart, Mr. Straughn, and a
personnel representative, Glenda Hanner. Ms. Brown was questioned about her
high rate of absenteeism, which she attributed to her difficult pregnancy, and

her child's illnesses. She was asked to improve her attendance, and, she testified,
to promise not to be absent at all in the future. She promised to try to improve
her attendance in the future.
25

More important than the substance of the meeting was its tone. Ms. Hanner
acted as an "interpreter" for Ms. Brown. Ms. Brown testified, "They would ask
me something and I would give the answer to it and Glenda would rephrase my
answer using bigger terminology, you know, I guess so they could understand
better." When Ms. Hanner took the side of Mr. Straughn and Ms. Hart on some
matters, racial accusations became more open. Ms. Brown said Ms. Hanner
claimed she didn't know there was any black-white dispute. Mr. Straughn
addressed Ms. Brown as "girl," while pointing his finger in her face, and Ms.
Hart called her a "fool." Ms. Brown then asked that a black employee be
brought into the meeting, but her request was denied, so she refused to talk
further. Ms. Hanner suggested that Ms. Brown might be happier working
elsewhere, and, Ms. Brown testified, Ms. Hart told her she was fired. She then
went out to the company parking lot, and Mr. Straughn there told her to leave
the premises.

26

From this evidence it is clear that Ms. Brown established a prima facie case of
constructive discharge. She was treated rudely by a white employee, and not
supported by management. It appeared she was called a "nigger" by the highest
official with whom she had contact. Her supervisor refused to assist her when
the computer format was changed during her maternity leave. Finally, during a
conference with supervisors, she was dealt with in a condescending and abusive
manner which the district judge could properly find to be suggestive of racial
animosity. Her sentences were "translated" by a white person, she was
addressed as "girl," and she was called a "fool," before being ordered off the
premises. The district court found, with substantial support, that the employer
made her working conditions intolerable, that it did so in order to force her to
quit, and that its motivation was, at least in part, racial.

27

Again Eckerd offered enough evidence to rebut the prima facie case. The
refusal to reassign Ms. Brown to a new station may have been mere compliance
with a sensible departmental practice. Her supervisor may not have refused to
assist her, if the supervisor's testimony is believed. The condescending
behavior at the meeting may, as Eckerd claims, have been Ms. Brown's
irrational perception due to her anger. In sum, Ms. Brown may have been
properly discharged because of her insubordination at the meeting.

28

However, even granting that Eckerd offered sufficient proof of facts to

demonstrate a legitimate reason for Ms. Brown's constructive discharge, it was

the district court's role to evaluate all of the evidence in order to determine
whether the reason advanced was a pretext. Here, again, the plaintiff was not
required, under Burdine, to introduce new evidence to show that the employer's
legitimate reason was a pretext. Looking at all the evidence, one might
reasonably conclude that the employer deliberately harassed Ms. Brown until it
succeeded in prevailing on her to quit, and that the motivation was racial bias.
That was the conclusion the district court reached. A rejection of the finding
would constitute an impermissible crossing of the boundary line between what
an appellate court may do and what falls within the trial court's ambit. We must
affirm the district court, because its view was not clearly erroneous.
II.
29

Eckerd also contends that Brown, Black, and Ivey were not "appropriate"
representatives of the class under Hill v. Western Electric, supra, 596 F.2d 99,
because the named representatives suffered injury "different" than that of
members of the class. 4 Since the class in this case ultimately included just
employees at the defendant's main office, warehouse, and several of its retail
stores who complained of failure to promote or transfer into management and
supervisory jobs, we consider Eckerd's argument only in relation to the final
class definition. Moreover, since we hold that Brown and Black were at all
times appropriate representatives of the indicated class, we have no occasion to
address the issue of whether Ivey's post-trial intervention cured any asserted
certification defect based on the contention that Brown and Black lacked
"standing" under Rule 23(a) to represent the class.

30

In Hill, we held, in the circumstances of that case, that an employee, who had
been hired, could not represent a class that included persons who were denied
employment altogether. However, Hill did not preclude an employee who
suffers some particularized employment discrimination grievance from
representing other employees who present factually differing claims that,
nevertheless, proceed on the same legal theory of race discrimination.5 Barnett
v. W. T. Grant Co., 518 F.2d 543 (4th Cir. 1975); cf. East Texas Motor Freight
System, Inc. v. Rodriguez, 431 U.S. 395, 97 S.Ct. 1891, 52 L.Ed.2d 453
(1977). As stated by the court in Donaldson v. Pillsbury Co., 554 F.2d 825, 831
(8th Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 856, 98 S.Ct. 177, 54 L.Ed.2d 128
(1977), "(w)hen the claim arises out of the same legal or remedial theory, the
presence of factual variations is normally not sufficient to preclude class action
treatment." See also Gibson v. Local 40, Supercargoes and Checkers of the
International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, 543 F.2d 1259,
1264 (9th Cir. 1976); Russell v. American Tobacco Co., 528 F.2d 357, 365 (4th
Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 935, 96 S.Ct. 1666, 48 L.Ed.2d 176 (1976).

Crockett v. Green, 534 F.2d 715 (7th Cir. 1976). 6

31

Where an employee presents a particularized claim of racial injury, she may

represent a class of other employees in bringing a general challenge to
workplace discrimination. Payne v. Travenol Laboratories, Inc., 565 F.2d 895,
900 (5th Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 835, 99 S.Ct. 118, 58 L.Ed.2d 131
(1978); Donaldson v. Pillsbury Co., supra, 554 F.2d at 830-31; Senter v.
General Motors Corp., 532 F.2d 511, 524 (6th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S.
870, 97 S.Ct. 182, 50 L.Ed.2d 150 (1976). The nature of employment
discrimination injury is such that all minority employees suffer similar injury
when unlawful practices governing the conditions of their workplace either
perpetuate a discriminatory work environment or subject them to a substantial
risk that they will be denied employment benefits in the future on account of
their race. See Trafficante v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 409 U.S. 205, 208-09,
93 S.Ct. 364, 366, 34 L.Ed.2d 415 (1972) (two tenants, one black and one
white, are "persons aggrieved" under Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968
when their landlord discriminates against nonwhites in the rental of
apartments); Gladstone, Realtors v. Village of Bellwood, 441 U.S. 91, 111-15,
99 S.Ct. 1601, 1614-16, 60 L.Ed.2d 66 (1979) (deprivation of benefits of
interracial associations constitutes sufficient injury to accord plaintiffs'
constitutional standing); Coles v. Havens Realty Corp., 633 F.2d 384, 388-90
(4th Cir. 1980), cert. granted, --- U.S. ----, 101 S.Ct. 1972, 68 L.Ed.2d 293
(1981) (named representatives of a class challenging racially discriminatory
"steering" practices of the defendant realty companies suffered injury to their
interest in "living in integrated communities free from discriminatory housing
practices"); Rogers v. Equal Employment Opp. Comm'n, 454 F.2d 234, 237-39
(5th Cir. 1971), cert. denied, 406 U.S. 957, 92 S.Ct. 2058, 32 L.Ed.2d 343
(1972) (Goldberg, J.) (employee may challenge discriminatory work
environment created by segregation of patients); Waters v. Heublein, Inc., 547
F.2d 466, 469-70 (9th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 433 U.S. 915, 97 S.Ct. 2988, 53
L.Ed.2d 1100 (1977) (white employee has standing to sue employer who
discriminates against minorities since she has statutory right to work
environment free of racial prejudice). All employees of a firm that allegedly
discriminates in promotions have an identical interest in obtaining declaratory
and injunctive relief against the perpetuation of the challenged practices.
Therefore, quite apart from any possibility of sharing in classwide damages as
to practices to which the named representative alleges no particularized
individual claim, employee representatives share interests of a kind with other
employees in redressing racially discriminatory employment practices that
either pollute their working environment or else threaten them with harm in the
foreseeable future.

32

Additionally, we note that class members-including named representatives-who

have not applied for a promotion may nevertheless be eligible to share in any
monetary relief awarded the class provided each can demonstrate that she
would have applied for promotion but for the defendant's discriminatory
promotion practices. See International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United
States, 431 U.S. 324, 362-68, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 1868-71, 52 L.Ed.2d 396 (1977).
In the typical Title VII bifurcated trial, which splits the liability stage (and,
consequently, all class certification decisions) from the remedial stage, a
putative representative's possible eligibility for sharing in any class relief will
not, in the normal course of affairs, be known until after his or her eligibility to
litigate class claims has been determined. That the Supreme Court anticipates
the possibility of obtaining such relief in the remedial stage underscores our
conclusion that Brown and Black have, indeed, been personally injured by the
practice they challenge.

33

Under these standards, Brown and Black are entirely appropriate

representatives. At the time of certification, each could show that, in addition to
her individual claim of discriminatory dismissal, she labored under the
allegedly discriminatory promotion practices of the defendant.7 Each of the
named plaintiffs, the district court found, worked in a system in which virtually
none of the supervisors were black or minority. Indeed, the one black
supervisor in the main office, Almetta Ivey, had been demoted from her
supervisory position. As employees allegedly injured by the Company's
maintenance of a hierarchically segregated work environment supervised by a
largely white managerial staff,8 therefore, Brown and Black were proper parties
under Hill and Barnett to represent an employee class challenging employment
practices that generally affected minority employees adversely.

34

Moreover, if successful on their individual claims and reinstated, each named

plaintiff, at the time of certification, could anticipate that she would once again
be subjected to Eckerd's discriminatory promotion practices. Eckerd's failure to
post notices of or provide job descriptions for supervisory vacancies, its
reliance on word-of-mouth notice of vacancies, its lack of regularized objective
means of employee evaluation, the absence of objective criteria governing
promotions into supervisory positions, and its complete reliance on managerial
discretion in making promotion decisions are classic means by which
minorities are locked into static positions. Brown v. Gaston County Dyeing
Mach. Co., 457 F.2d 1377, 1382-83 (4th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 982,
93 S.Ct. 319, 34 L.Ed.2d 246 (1972); Barnett v. W. T. Grant Co., supra, 518
F.2d at 549-50; Rock v. Norfolk & Western Ry., 473 F.2d 1344 (4th Cir. 1973),
cert. denied, 412 U.S. 933, 93 S.Ct. 2754, 37 L.Ed.2d 161 (1973); Rowe v.
General Motors Corp., 457 F.2d 348, 358-59 (5th Cir. 1972). At the time of

certification, therefore, Brown and Black could show that, in addition to their
particularized claims of discriminatory dismissal, each was injured by
discriminatory promotion practices. See Rodriguez, supra, 431 U.S. at 403, 97
S.Ct. at 1896. Therefore, Brown and Black were appropriate representatives of
an employee class at all relevant times during the litigation. See generally,
Note, Antidiscrimination Class Actions Under the Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure: The Transformation of Rule 23(b)(2), 88 Yale L.J. 868 (1979);
Note, The Proper Scope of Representation in Title VII Class Actions: A
Comment on East Texas Motor Freight System, Inc. v. Rodriguez, 13
Harv.C.R.-C.L.L.Rev. 175 (1978).
III.
35

Eckerd maintains that the district court erred when it allowed class member
Almetta Ivey to intervene after trial as a named plaintiff. The contention is
without merit.

36

The district court permitted Ms. Ivey to intervene both as of right, Fed.R.Civ.P.
24(a),9 and pursuant to trial court discretion, Fed.R.Civ.P. 24(b).10 Since we
perceive no abuse of discretion under Rule 24(b), we do not decide whether
Ivey, as a class member, had a right to intervene. It is enough that the district
court had a discretionary power to permit her intervention.

37

Rule 24(b) provides that a district court may allow intervention by "anyone"
when the "applicant's claim or defense and the main action have a question of
law or fact in common." Here, in her complaint, Ms. Ivey contended that she
was demoted from a supervisory position on account of her race. Certainly,
since she was already a class member, her claim presented issues of law and
fact in common with those of the class. See generally 7A Wright and Miller,
Federal Prac. & Proc. 1911, 1916 (1972 & 1981 Supp.). In addition,
Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(d)(2) and (3)11 expressly anticipate that class members may
wish to intervene as named parties. The defendant has not suggested that it was
prejudiced by Ivey's intervention as a named plaintiff a year after the trial.
Indeed, since her claim had been presented at the trial, it would be difficult for
the defendant to suggest that her metamorphosis into a named plaintiff worked
to its detriment.12 See Muskelly v. Warner & Swasey Co., 653 F.2d 112 (4th
Cir. 1981) (class member permitted to intervene after trial as named
representative). Therefore, we conclude that the decision to allow Ivey to
intervene was proper, and that her actual intervention in the litigation after trial
was timely. See United Airlines, Inc. v. McDonald, 432 U.S. 385, 97 S.Ct.
2464, 53 L.Ed.2d 423 (1977) (allowing class member to intervene after
judgment for purpose of appealing denial of class certification); Wheeler v.

American Home Products Corporation, supra, 563 F.2d 1233; McDonald v. E.

J. Lavino Co., 430 F.2d 1065 (5th Cir. 1970) (intervention after judgment
allowed).
IV.
38

Having carefully reviewed the remainder of defendant's contentions, including

the sufficiency of proof on the class claims, we find no error.

39

AFFIRMED.
DONALD RUSSELL, Circuit Judge, dissenting:

40

I dissent.

41

I first address the individual claims of the class members. In so doing, it is

necessary only to consider the charges made by Ms. Brown and Ms. Ivey,1
since all other claims by individual members were dismissed on their merits
and there is no appeal from such dismissal.

42

* The flaw in the disposition of both the Brown and the Ivey charges is the
failure of the District Court to apply the Burdine burden of proof rule in
disposing of these claims.2 Under Burdine, the plaintiff has "(t)he burden of
establishing a prima facie case," which the Court declared was not an "onerous"
burden.3 If the plaintiff establishes such prima facie case, the burden shifts to
the employer "to rebut the presumption of discrimination by producing
evidence that the plaintiff was rejected, or someone else was preferred, for a
legitimate, non-discriminatory reason. The defendant need not persuade the
court that it was actually motivated by the proffered reasons. See Sweeney,
supra (439 U.S. 24) at 25 (99 S.Ct. 295, at 296, 58 L.Ed.2d 216). It is sufficient
if the defendant's evidence raises a genuine issue of fact as to whether it
discriminated against the plaintiff."4 Specifically, this burden imposed at this
point on the employer is not "to introduce evidence, which, in the absence of
any pretext, would persuade the trier of fact that the employment action was
lawful" (Emphasis the Court's), but only to "articulate lawful reasons for the
action."5 More important, for purposes of this case, the employer is not
required "to prove by objective evidence that the person hired or promoted was
more qualified than the plaintiff." (Emphasis added)6 In fact, one of the actual
grounds for reversal in Burdine was the error of the Court of Appeals in
imposing on the employer the burden of proving by objective evidence that
those hired or promoted were better qualified than the plaintiff.7 When the

employer has met this burden of articulating (not persuading) a lawful reason
for his act, "the presumption raised by the prima facie case is rebutted, and the
factual inquiry proceeds to a new level of specificity." (Emphasis added)8 To
prevail, then, the plaintiff must "demonstrate that the proffered reason was not
the true reason for the employment decision," but was discriminatory, and here
the burden of persuasion rests on the plaintiff.9
43

In neither the Brown nor the Ivey case did the District Court follow this plainly
marked procedure as mandated by Burdine. The decision below in these cases
should be reversed or, at least, remanded for further action in the light of the
standards declared in Burdine, which actually were not new but were simply a
clearer reaffirmation of the prior decisions in Sweeney,10 Waters,11 and even
McDonnell Douglas,12 as we recognized in Ambush v. Montgomery Cty.
Government, Etc., 620 F.2d 1048, 1052 (4th Cir. 1980) and, as several District
Courts in this Circuit have recognized, Day v. Patapsco & Back Rivers R. Co.,
504 F.Supp. 1301, 1311 (D.Md.1981); Cussler v. University of Maryland, 430
F.Supp. 602, 605 (D.Md.1977). In so reversing or remanding, we would be
following the well reasoned opinion of Judge Friendly in Ste. Marie v. Eastern
R. Ass'n., 650 F.2d 395 (2d Cir. 1981).

44

In Ste. Marie the charge was sex discrimination "in appointments to technical
and managerial positions." The District Court, as here, found in favor of the
plaintiff and her class. In reversing, the Court said:

45

"The overarching reason why the decision must be reversed is that the judge,
having concluded, perhaps wrongly, that plaintiff had established a prima facie
case, proceeded on the basis of a clearly improper standard as to the burden
thereby placed on the defendant. He stated, 458 F.Supp. at 1165, that the
establishment of a prima facie case of sex discrimination 'the burden shifted to
the defendant to rebut plaintiff's case, and its failure to do so compels the
conclusion that its policies and practices violate the Act.'

46

"This was error. It has been clear ever since McDonnell Douglas, supra, 411
U.S. at 802, 93 S.Ct. at 1824, that the burden that is shifted to the defendant by
plaintiff's making out a prima facie case of disparate treatment-a task described
in Burdine as 'not onerous', --- U.S. at ----, 101 S.Ct. at 1093-is not a burden of
persuading the trier of a business necessity to employ or promote a person
belonging to the majority. The shifted burden is simply 'to articulate some
legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the (minority) employee's rejection.'
411 U.S. at 802, 93 S.Ct. at 1824. This follows necessarily from the language
and purpose of Title VII. The employer is not required to hire or promote a
minority employee; rather he is forbidden to refuse to hire or promote such an

employee because of race or sex. Hence he sufficiently rebuts a prima facie

case by pointing to a business reason for his employment decision. By doing
this he adequately negates, for the time being, the force of a plaintiff's initial
showing that a qualified minority employee was denied employment or
promotion which was given a majority employee instead. The plaintiff then has
the burden 'to show that (the) stated reason ... was in fact pretext,' 411 U.S. at
804, 93 S.Ct. at 1825, or, as later phrased, id. at 805, 93 S.Ct. at 1826, 'that the
presumptively valid reasons' for failure to hire or promote 'were in fact a
coverup for a racially (here sexually) discriminatory decision.' Justice Powell's
recent opinion in Burdine, supra, simply elaborates in a helpful fashion on the
theme sufficiently sounded eight years ago in McDonnell Douglas from which
the Court has never deviated. The district court's conclusion that defendants had
followed a pattern and practice of disparate treatment must therefore fall as
based on an erroneous allocation of the burden of proof."13
II
47

Turning first to the Ivey claim: At the outset, it is to be noted that the district
court's decision sustaining Ms. Ivey's racial discrimination claim is fatally
flawed by two critical errors of law. That the district court, in analyzing the
facts as a basis for its final conclusions, utilized these erroneous legal standards
cannot be disputed. These legal errors-both vital in the factual analysis of the
claim-are plain and obvious in the opinion itself. Indeed, the majority concedes
that such decision is contrary to the recent decision of the Supreme Court in
Burdine in two vital particulars. Nor could it hardly have done otherwise. The
first of such errors, which related to the burden of proof in this discriminatory
treatment case, is, in the words of the majority, "difficult to reconcile with the
evidence." The majority might more accurately have said that it was impossible
"to reconcile" the district court's ruling on the burden of proof with the law, as
declared in Burdine, for such is the plain fact as the majority recognizes by
making no effort to "reconcile" the decision of the district court with the
evidence. The second error imposed improperly on the defendant a
"requirement that the defendant show that Ms. Ivey's replacement was as
qualified as, or more qualified than, Ms. Ivey." The majority candidly
acknowledges that the district court, in so holding, did "not follow Burdine."
The majority, however, blandly dismisses these admitted violations of the rules
declared in Burdine by declaring, applying the clearly erroneous rule ("... our
function is the very restricted one of determining whether the district court's
determination was clearly erroneous"), simply that "the district court found as a
fact that race was one reason for the demotion of Ms. Ivey, and its finding was
amply supported by the record."

48

Such a "brush-off" of the flagrant violations of Burdine by the district court in

48

Such a "brush-off" of the flagrant violations of Burdine by the district court in

reaching its decision disregards the fact that the very finding and conclusions it
affirms (i. e., "that race was one reason for the demotion") was arrived at by the
district court only as a result of a factual analysis of Ms. Ivey's claim made on
the basis of the district court's erroneous legal rules on burden of proof and on
the necessity of the defendant's establishing that Ms. Ivey's replacement was
better qualified than Ms. Ivey. These two rulings, both concededly erroneous,
lie at the very heart of the district court's finding "that race was one reason" for
Ms. Ivey's demotion. Critical legal errors-errors such as the two here, which can
be decisive in the result reached by the court, are not to be dismissed as the
majority has done by a routine incantation of the clearly erroneous rule. Since
the finding that Ms. Ivey's demotion was racially motivated as arrived at by an
application of what it must be admitted were two critical errors of law, the
majority errs in assuming that the proper standard of review is, the clearly
erroneous rule. This was made quite clear in our decision in Owen v.
Commercial Union Fire Ins. Co., 211 F.2d 488, 489 (4th Cir. 1954) where we
said:

49 trial judge held that the burden of proof rested upon the plaintiff 'to prove, by
"The
the weight of the credible evidence, that he has not been guilty of wilfully
concealing or misrepresenting any material fact or circumstance'. This was clearly
erroneous. The burden of proof rested upon the defendant to establish the fraud
alleged. (citing cases) And we think that the error is of such a nature that we should
vacate the judgment and remand the case for further hearing. The rule that an
appellate court will not disturb findings of fact made by the trial judge unless they
are clearly erroneous does not apply if he has committed an error of law which has
manifestly influenced or controlled his findings of fact, such as mistake as to the
burden of proof."
50

We restated this same principle in Piedmont Minerals Company v. United

States, 429 F.2d 560, 562, n. 4 (4th Cir. 1970):

51

"To be sure, in making this determination of fact the district court must apply
relevant legal principles, and a factual determination made in disregard of the
applicable principles of law, or made through gross overemphasis on one
relevant principle to the exclusion of others, will be reversed because of the
application of an improper legal standard. This is not the case here."In so
ruling, we were following the rule adopted universally in federal courts, and
applied as well in Title VII cases as in other types of cases. Johnson v. Uncle
Ben's, Inc., 628 F.2d 419, 422 (5th Cir. 1980); United States v. Texas Ed.
Agcy., Etc., 564 F.2d 162, reh. denied, 579 F.2d 910 (5th Cir.), cert. denied,
443 U.S. 915, 99 S.Ct. 3106, 61 L.Ed.2d 879 (1979); Parson v. Kaiser
Aluminum & Chemical Corp., 575 F.2d 1374, 1382 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 441

U.S. 968, 99 S.Ct. 2417, 60 L.Ed.2d 1073 (1979); Rowe v. General Motors
Corporation, 457 F.2d 348, 356, n. 15 (5th Cir. 1972); Ammerman v. Miller,
488 F.2d 1285, 1300 (D.C.Cir. 1973).14 Moreover, it was the rule adopted and
followed by the Supreme Court itself in Burdine, see 450 U.S. at 259 n.12, 101
S.Ct. at 1097 n.12. If this rule is applied, there is no escape from a reversal of
the decision of the District Court.
52

The factual record of the Ivey claim clearly sustains the foregoing conclusions.

53

Ms. Ivey, the claimant, was initially employed by the defendant in 1969 in its
main office. In December, 1975, when a new department (third party
receivables) was created, she, a black, was made supervisor of that department.
She was relieved as supervisor in June, 1977 (without any reduction in salary )
and replaced by Marilyn Wilkes, a white. That may well have been sufficient,
under the liberal rule for establishing a prima facie case as formulated in
Burdine, to make out a prima facie case of racial discrimination. See Lindsey v.
Miss. Research & Development Center, 652 F.2d 488, 491 (5th Cir. 1981). For
purposes of this discussion, I shall accept that conclusion. But, under the
Burdine standard, that only shifted the burden to the defendant to "articulate
lawful reasons for the action;" it certainly did not impose on the defendant any
burden of persuasion or of rebutting the prima facie case. And the defendant did
precisely meet its burden of articulating "lawful reasons" for its demotion of
Ms. Ivey and that in overwhelming detail.

54

In so doing, the defendant began by establishing that almost from the outset, the
department was not understaffed racially. Of its four employees, two were
black and two white.15 The two black employees at the beginning were the
claimant Ivey and Teresa Hasty. When Theresa Hasty quit to return to school in
Texas, Morris Abraham, also black was transferred into the department.
Neither did the defendant seek to discriminate against blacks in the selection of
the manager of the department. Ms. Ivey, a black, was chosen by Whitworth,
the officer under whom the department operated, as the new department's
supervisor. She retained that position from December, 1975 to June, 1977.

55

The function of the new department was the establishment of a control system
over what the defendant described as "third party receivables", i.e., claims for
payment for prescriptions not from the person presenting the prescription but
from "third parties", such as an insurance company. The operation of the new
department was phased in gradually over a period of some months until it
covered all the stores in the chain. One of the specific and important duties of
the supervisor of the department was the preparation of an "outstanding balance
report that she was supposed to present to (her superior) monthly." This report

was not an elaborate or complicated report; to prepare it merely required the

collection of "each one of the pages for each one of the stores at the end of the
month and combin(ing them into) the totals." According to the defendant's
undisputed testimony, the plaintiff Ivey, though she was the supervisor charged
with the responsibility of preparing these monthly reports, did not prepare or
file a single monthly report in the months between her appointment as a
supervisor in December, 1975 and her demotion in June, 1977. She was
repeatedly requested during this time to furnish such report. Her reply was
always that she was "working on the report." Whitworth, her superior,
repeatedly and with unusual patience, extended time to her for preparing the
reports.
56

From sometime in September, 1976, Ms. Ivey was on sick leave for ten weeks.
In this period, the defendant offered testimony that it began to receive reports
"about certain things that had not been done" by Ms. Ivey. Whitworth checked
through Ms. Ivey's desk. He found "various things such as checks that were not
deposited, dating back some four to five months; ... rejected claims that had not
been reprocessed, had not been sent back to the stores; ... inquiries from
managers that had not been answered ... several instances where checks had
been deposited in total without any breakdown as to what stores ... could not
support the breakdown on the spread sheet ... used to deposit checks." When
Ms. Ivey returned to work, Whitworth testified that he brought all of these
delinquencies to her attention. Ms. Ivey offered various excuses. Her primary
excuse was overwork and inadequate staff. How this prevented her from
preparing the monthly reports, depositing checks, answering inquiries from
store managers, and the other shortcomings in her performance was not detailed
by Ms. Ivey.

57

In line with its employment policy, Ms. Ivey's superiors reviewed with her at
least two times before her demotion her job performance.16 On each occasion,
she was told by her superior that her performance was not adequate and did not
qualify for an increase in pay. At this review her superiors indicated to Ms. Ivey
the shortcomings in her performance. Ms. Ivey did not contest the shortcomings
specified by her superiors in her performance. She sought again to excuse them
because of inadequate staff and overwork. The last of these reviews was in
April before her demotion. One of the items of discussion in both of these
reviews was the continuing one relating to her failure to prepare her monthly
reports. At her final April review, Ms. Ivey said she would have the reports by
July next.

58

During the period when Ms. Ivey was supervisor Whitworth said he had
repeated complaints from other departments about the noise and loud talking in

Ms. Ivey's department. He had called this to Ms. Ivey's attention. Ms. Ivey
generally blamed the noise on a white employee, Cindy Newsome. Whitworth
told her she was the boss and she should control her employees. Further, he
pointed out to her that she made as much noise as others in the department and
she should set an example. Although Ms. Ivey seemed to blame her difficulties
on Cindy Newsome, she never recommended either the discharge or
disciplining of Newsome.17
59

In the meantime, the defendant had merged with another company engaged in a
similar business but on a larger scale. The other company had a more
sophisticated system for controlling "third party receivables" than had the initial
employer and the merged company determined to shift over to the more
sophisticated system operated by the other company. Whitworth, Ms. Ivey's
superior, testified that, since Ms. Ivey had shown an inability to handle the
simpler system used by the old company, it was obvious, Whitworth reasoned,
she would not be able to handle the more sophisticated one.18 He accordingly
called Ms. Ivey in, explained the situation to her, told her he was going to
transfer Ms. Wilkes from the accounts receivable department, where she was
the second in command, to this new department as the supervisor. He offered
Ms. Ivey the opportunity to transfer without any diminution in salary to another
department, if the change embarrassed her. She declined, saying "that she and
Marilyn (Wilkes) work well together."

60

I submit that this evidence offered by the defendant, so much of it undisputed

by Ms. Ivey, met the test established in Burdine for articulating a legitimate
reason for its action, and thereby shifted the burden to the plaintiff to prove by
the preponderance of the evidence that "the proffered reason was not the true
reason for the employment decision but pretextual" and that "she (had) been the
victim of intentional discrimination."

61

Ms. Ivey assuredly did not thereafter satisfy her burden of persuasion that the
articulated reason for Ivey's replacement was pretextual by any proof of a
general practice of discrimination in promotion or demotions on the part of
defendant, or by any evidence of discrimination in the treatment of black
supervisors as contrasted with white supervisors, or by any record of
harassment of the plaintiff Ivey. Thus, in its initial Memorandum of Decision,
the District Court stated:19

62 court does not find that Ivey's demotion represents any general pattern, practice
"The
or policy regarding demotions. There is no evidence that Ivey or any other class
member who held a supervisory position was given more onerous duties or was held
to a higher standard of performance than whites in comparable supervisory

positions. The Court would like to hear further from the parties on whether Almetta
Ivey is, on these facts, entitled to any relief, and if so, what relief ought to be
afforded." (Italics added)
63

What apparently the district court rested its finding on in this case was, first,
that the defendant had not borne its burden of rebutting the claimant's prima
facie case in that it had not established that Ms. Ivey's replacement was better
qualified than Ms. Ivey. This proof of comparative qualification was essential,
according to the district court, if the defendant were to sustain what the district
court erroneously conceived to be the defendant's burden of persuasion. In its
initial Memorandum of Decision, the district court made this perfectly clear. It
said:

64
"Although
the system of accounting in the third party receivables department was
changed in June, 1977, defendant did not demonstrate that Ivey was less capable of
handling the new system than the new supervisor brought into the department. Her
demotion was due, at least in part, to her race."
65

Later, in its subsequently entered findings of fact, the district court repeated this
finding as the critical shortcoming in defendant's proof:

66
"Eckerd
Drugs did not demonstrate that Ms. Ivey was less capable of handling the
new system than her white replacement, and failed to demonstrate that Ms. Ivey's
replacement was as, or more qualified, than Ms. Ivey."
67

I submit that the majority cannot successfully argue that the ultimate finding of
the district court on this claim was not tainted or influenced by the district
court's legal mistakes on both burden of proof and on the evidence on which a
finding of racial discrimination in employment may be made. The majority
admits that the district court incorrectly applied to the defendant a heavier
burden of proof than Burdine allowed. Moreover, every time it found that Ms.
Ivey's replacement was due "in part at least" to "race," it prefaced the finding
by reciting that the defendant had failed to "establish," that is, to "prove," that
the white replacement was as well as or better qualified than Ms. Ivey. That
requirement of proof, thus noticed by the district court in this forceful fashion,
was, as the majority again concedes, erroneous as a matter of law under
Burdine. How, then, can it be fairly said that such erroneous finding of fact did
not enter into and was not a factor-in fact, the deciding factor-in the district
court's ultimate conclusion on the Ivey claim? Equally pertinent, how can it be
fairly said that imposing on the defendant the burden of rebutting the claimant's
prima facie case did not influence the decision in this case? Which party has the
burden of proof is often decisive in the resolution of a case. When that burden

is illegally imposed on a party is not the decision tainted? I submit reversal is

required in this case as much as, if not more so, than it was in Ste. Marie v.
Eastern R. Ass'n, supra, in Daye v. Harris, 655 F.2d 258, 263 (D.C.Cir. 1981),
and in Piedmont Minerals Corporation v. United States, supra.
68

While the failure of the defendant to prove that Ms. Wilkes was better qualified
as a supervisor than Ms. Ivey apparently was a deciding factor in the district
court's decision, two other circumstances were referred to in the district court's
opinion. First, the district court states that Ms. Ivey trained Ms. Wilkes. We
remark parenthetically that this statement, intended to point up the failure of the
defendant to prove that Ms. Wilkes was as well as or better qualified than Ms.
Ivey merely accentuated the effect of the district court's error of law upon its
ultimate decision. But the validity of this statement factually was disputed
vigorously by the defendant, and finds no real support in the record on careful
analysis. Ms. Ivey certainly could not have trained Ms. Wilkes in the
preparation of her reports which were essential for the control function of the
department under the abandoned system: Ms. Ivey had never in all her months
as a supervisor been able to prepare one. Moreover, the defendant was
installing a new system, and Ms. Ivey had no familiarity at all with it and was in
no position to train anyone in its operation. Actually, Ms. Ivey's testimony was
not that she trained Ms. Wilkes but simply that as one who had been with the
department from the beginning she explained "to Marilyn what goes on in the
department." The district court, also, finds fault with the defendant for not
giving Ms. Ivey until July to prepare and get in her first monthly report as a
supervisor after approximately a year and a half in her job as a supervisor
before demoting her as it did in June. However, the district court itself seems to
have answered this claim. It found in the quotation from its Memorandum of
Decision already quoted that "the system of accounting in the third party
receivables department was changed in June, 1977," when Ms. Ivey was
replaced as supervisor. Any report under the old system would have been
useless as a result of this change. There was no point in waiting for a report that
had lost all relevancy. The decisive fact-and one not really disputed in the
record-was that, in instituting a new and more complex system of controls in
the department, it was reasonable to consider the inability, after experience for
almost a year and a half, of Ms. Ivey to master the older, less complicated
system and to conclude that her replacement was in order. The claimant Ivey
offered no reason to find that such decision was unreasonable or pretextual or
that it represented intentional racial discrimination. She had thus not met the
burden of persuasion placed on her by Burdine.

69

Finally, it must be remembered that there is not the slightest evidence of any
kind of racial prejudice on Whitworth's part in the entire period that Ivey was a

supervisor under him. When the department was constituted, Whitworth could
have appointed a white employee in the department as supervisor. He did not;
he promoted Ms. Ivey. Never once did Ms. Ivey testify to any harassment on the
part of Whitworth or any other superior because of her race. In fact, Whitworth,
despite the fact that, as Ms. Ivey herself admitted, Ms. Ivey was not doing her
job, struggled along with her, giving her repeated opportunities to improve. This
certainly does not indicate that Ms. Ivey was being subjected to racial
discrimination. I repeat: Though she had been supervisor for almost a year and
a half, Ms. Ivey had never been able to prepare a single monthly report of the
operation of her department. The report was not difficult to prepare; it involved
a matter of simple addition which any eighth grade student should have been
able to do easily. Ms. Ivey had been repeatedly told of her shortcomings as a
supervisor and she did not dispute them. When the more sophisticated system
was installed, Whitworth concluded he had gone as far as he could with Ms.
Ivey. But-and this is something that demonstrates the absence of any intention
to be unfair to Ms. Ivey-Whitworth offered to transfer Ms. Ivey to any other
department where she might think she could work more effectively and, in any
event (whether she transferred or not) she would continue to be paid her
supervisor's salary. She chose to remain in the department at her supervisor's
salary. There is thus a complete absence of any racial connection with this
episode. It can only be assumed that the district court reaches its conclusion
because of its erroneous view of the burden of proof between the parties and
because it considered proof that the replacement was as qualified as, or better
qualified than Ms. Ivey, was essential if a finding of discrimination were not to
be made against the defendant.
70

The individual claim of Ms. Ivey should have been dismissed by the district
court which committed manifest error in ruling otherwise on the grounds
assigned. Only if we are to disregard Burdine and our own case of Ambush can
the claim of Ms. Ivey be affirmed. Frankly, I cannot understand the action of
the majority in affirming the judgment in favor of Ms. Ivey, especially since
Burdine so plainly compels reversal of the judgment in favor of Ms. Ivey.

III
71

The plaintiff Brown's claim is no less lacking in merit than that of Ms. Ivey.
She was employed by the defendant as a keypunch operator in the main office
of the defendant and quit her job on June 3, 1975. It was the finding of the
district court that "she quit her job under pressure from her supervisors" and it
accordingly concluded that she had been constructively discharged. The
doctrine of constructive discharge, relied on by the district court for its
conclusion, is well recognized. It "had its genesis in the labor relations area

(citing authority) but has been extended and held applicable to civil rights
cases," English v. Powell, 592 F.2d 727, 731, n.4 (4th Cir. 1979). When
properly proved, it is no different in effect than an actual discharge. In order to
establish a constructive discharge violative of Title VII the plaintiff must prove
by the preponderance of the evidence that he was forced to quit his
employment by reason of intolerable working conditions imposed on him by
his employer, who was motivated in such imposition by racial or sex bias. J.P.
Stevens & Co. v. N.L.R.B., 461 F.2d 490, 494-95 (4th Cir. 1972); Johnson v.
Bunny Bread Co., 646 F.2d 1250, 1256 (8th Cir. 1981); Cartwright Hdw. Co. v.
N.L.R.B., 600 F.2d 268, 270 (10th Cir. 1979); Muller v. United States Steel
Corporation, 509 F.2d 923, 929 (10th Cir. 1975).20 A finding of "intolerable
working conditions" under the doctrine is not satisfied by proof that the
employer was "very demanding of the employee" or that he "often dealt with
(them) in a harsh manner;" such a finding "arises only when a reasonable
person would find (the conditions) intolerable." Johnson v. Bunny Bread Co.,
supra, 646 F.2d at 1256. Moreover, the employer's imposition of "intolerable
working conditions" must have been "taken with the intention of forcing the
employee to quit" and not as a general employment policy. Id. at 1256. Nor will
mere "isolated, casual, accidental or sporadic" harassment suffice to establish a
constructive discharge; the doctrine requires a "concerted pattern of
harassment," "so excessive and opprobrious as to constitute an unlawful
employment practice under Title VII." Carridi v. Kansas City Chiefs, 568 F.2d
87, 88 (8th Cir. 1977); EEOC v. Murphy Motor Freight Lines, 488 F.Supp.
381, 384-85 (D.Minn. 1980). But-and this is the critical issue in the civil rights
context-in order to render a constructive discharge remediable under Title VII,
the intolerable conditions must also have been motivated by racial or sex bias.
Johnson v. Bunny Bread Co., supra, 646 F.2d at 1256-57.
72

The doctrine of constructive discharge thus depends for its application in the
civil rights or Title VII area on three specific findings: 1. That the employer
imposed on the employee intolerable working conditions; 2. That the
employer's action was taken with the intention of forcing the employee to quit;
and 3. That his actions were motivated by a racial or sex bias. Cartwright Hdw.
Co. v. N.L.R.B., supra, 600 F.2d at 270-71.

73

In its Memorandum of Decision, the district court predicated its factual finding
of constructive discharge strictly on events occurring at "a conference on June
3, 1975, involving plaintiff, her immediate supervisor Penny Hart, the
supervisor of all data processing operations John Strong (Straughn), and a
personnel representative Glenda Hanner." The conference was called,
according to this finding, "to discuss plaintiff's attendance record, her work
performance and her attitude toward the company." "(T)empers were high on

both sides" at the conference and, according to the district court, "(t)he
treatment plaintiff received in the meeting would not have occurred had she
been white; her conflict with her superiors was due at least in part to her race."
There was no elaboration on these findings in the Memorandum, prepared by
the district court. However, in the Findings later submitted by the plaintiffs and,
as modified in a few particulars, adopted by the district court, the circumstances
on which the district court made its finding of constructive discharge included
some matters occurring before the conference of June 3rd.
74

The first of these earlier events cited in the later Findings was the refusal of the
plaintiff's supervisor to change Ms. Brown's work station for "some three
weeks after (her) initial request (for such change), even though she (Ms.
Brown) told Ms. Hart she was having "difficulties with white employees," and
" other operable work stations were available." Ms. Brown protested this
decision over the head of her supervisor to the supervisor of all data processing
operations, though, her supervisor told her later she was a "fool" to have done
this. The next incident in point of time was that the plaintiff "thought" herself
referred to as a "nigger" on the day before the meeting of June 3 and that at the
meeting Straughn at one time referred to the plaintiff as "girl." Finally, at the
meeting on June 3, Ms. Brown claimed Ms. Hanner was misinterpreting her
remarks during the conference. It is said that Straughn and Hart at that
conference "insisted on (a promise of) absolute attendance" and the plaintiff
promised "she would do her best to be at work, and not be absent every time
her child was sick." The district court found that the plaintiff's "response was
reasonable." Such were the findings on which the district court's conclusion of a
constructive discharge rested.

75

I seriously question that the plaintiff made out a prima facie showing of a
constructive discharge motivated by a desire on the part of the defendant to be
rid of the plaintiff as an employee because of racial bias. Aside from that,
however, the defendant clearly gave a lawful reason for every action taken by
it, about which the plaintiff complains and gave the clearest evidence of an
absence of racial harassment or discriminatory intent. Without so much as
discussing any of these reasons as articulated by the defendant in its evidence,
(and without later considering whether they were "pretextual,") the district
court dismissed them with the bare statement that the "defendant failed to
rebut." It is obvious once again that the district court erroneously assumed that
when the plaintiff made out a prima facie case the burden shifted to the
defendant to disprove that prima facie case, and that if it failed then it had not
rebutted the prima facie case. As we have already observed in connection with
the Ivey claim, this assumption is contrary to the rule declared in Burdine, and,
just as in Ste. Marie v. Eastern R. Ass'n., supra, 650 F.2d at 398, this decision

must be reversed for that reason.

76

Any review of the record in order to determine whether under Burdine the
defendant articulated a lawful reason for its action, must begin with the
undisputed fact that the plaintiff never in the first few months of her
employment under her supervisor Hart and the over-all supervision of Straughn
experienced the slightest harassment or evidence of either personal or racial
bias, whether by her supervisors or by her fellow employees. Indeed, both Hart
and Straughn, if anything, seemed to favor the plaintiff. As evidence of this is
their treatment of Brown's request for maternity leave in early January, 1975.
When told by Brown that she was pregnant within a month or so of her
employment (of which they knew nothing when plaintiff was employed) and a
request was made by plaintiff for maternity leave-a request which it was the
policy of the defendant to refuse in the case of employees with less than a year
of employment21-Ms. Hart on her own went to Straughn to request an exception
in the plaintiff's case. And Straughn granted it. This certainly was a strong
manifestation of the absence of any personal or racial bias against the plaintiff
on the part of the plaintiff's supervisors. Further, there is no evidence of any
racial bias in the department where the plaintiff worked. At the time of trial,
Ms. Hart testified that half of the operators were black and one of her two
assistants was black. This was undisputed. If the defendant was employing
blacks at this rate in the department, it is difficult to infer that the defendant,
and particularly Ms. Hart and Straughn, had any aversion to employing blacks
or had any reason to harass or fire the plaintiff or any other black employee
simply because the employee was black.

77

Turning to the first incident cited by the district court in its final Findings of
Fact, 22 -i. e., the failure to reassign the plaintiff to another work station-the
defendant gave a very reasonable explanation of the action taken. The plaintiff
made her first request for a reassignment on April 10. Ms. Hart told her that she
expected shortly to make a complete reassignment of all the employees and
would at that time take care of the plaintiff's complaint. This was the common
way for Ms. Hart to deal with such situations.23 The plaintiff said that was
"acceptable" to her. On the 16th, however, Ms. Brown complained again to Ms.
Hart and Ms. Hart, according to Ms. Brown's testimony, replied that she would
"not change (the plaintiff's) desk until she changed everybody's." Ms. Brown
responded that "if she would not change my desk this time, that I would go to
somebody that would."

78

Ms. Brown went to the office of Mel Harvey, who told her he had no authority
to direct the change and referred her to Straughn. Straughn, however, refused to
overrule Ms. Hart, saying that "if he had to come in and change (Ms. Brown's)

desk he would have to come in and take over her office and he did not intend to
do that." Ms. Brown's answer to this was, as she herself testified, "Okay, I'll go
back there, but don't expect me to put out one hundred per cent." In her
statement as given to the EEOC the next day, her response was given as: "Well,
I said, I'll go back in there and I'll sit at the same desk, but don't expect me to
put out a hundred percent." Ms. Brown then testified that Straughn told her,
"You'll go back in there and put out a hundred percent or else", to which Ms.
Brown replied, "(t)hen I said, or else I'm not going to quit my job, you'll have to
fire me." Straughn inquired whether Ms. Brown was giving him an ultimatum.
Ms. Brown's reply was: "I said, no, you said that."
79

The plaintiff thereupon returned to her job but the next day, April 17 she left
work at 1:50 p. m., claiming sickness. However, she went that afternoon to the
local EEOC and complained. 24 She testified that from this time on, she kept a
detailed account of any complaints she might have in connection with her
employment while she was working. She returned to work on Friday, April 18.
The plaintiff was absent from work all of the following week, returning to work
on April 28. On April 29, Ms. Hart made the general reassignment of stations
among the employees, including "the plaintiff," which Ms. Hart had previously
told the plaintiff she was preparing to do.

80

The defendant, through its witnesses, filled in a considerable amount of

material on this incident. There was no dispute that a Ms. Baker and the
defendant had some conflicts and that Ms. Baker was white and the plaintiff
black. But there is nothing in the record to suggest that those differences arose
out of any racial conflicts or involved any racial slurs. There were many blacks
in the department. So far as the record shows, Ms. Baker had had no trouble of
any kind with any other black employee in the department. The difficulty
between Brown and Baker appears to have been merely a personality conflict
between the two. Moreover, Ms. Hart explained in her testimony her reason for
not immediately granting the plaintiff's request. First, the plaintiff wished to be
assigned to a particular station occupied by another employee. Secondly, there
were, as the plaintiff testified, a few stations unoccupied. The machines at some
of these stations were inoperative; the others were not serviceable because of
their remote location (the operator was required to look always at the wall.) In
Ms. Hart's opinion, the whole problem could be better remedied by the general
reassignment being developed by her at the time. This was her general rule
when difficulties arose between employees.25 The plaintiff indicated this
arrangement was acceptable to her. When the plaintiff renewed her request on
the 16th, Ms. Hart gave her the same answer. The plaintiff responded by going
over Ms. Hart's head and, then, when her request was denied, by threatening her
superiors with a work slow-down. The conduct of the plaintiff was, by any

standard, insubordinate, warranting severe discipline. The defendant, by its

conduct, clearly established that it was not seeking to force the plaintiff to quit
(if it had such an intention, it had ample justification for discharge in the
plaintiff's conduct) and there is no intimation of any racial motive in defendant's
action. Moreover, the defendant gave a perfectly reasonable explanation for its
action, which accorded with its established practices.
81

The second incident listed by the district court was the alleged use of the term
"nigger" in a conversation of Straughn on June 2 before the final incident on
June 3. Straughn denies any such use of the term. The plaintiff claims to have
overheard Straughn use this term in a conversation with certain persons. She
recalls no other language used in the conversation nor could she give any
account of the conversation; she claimed only to have heard the one word. She
had no recollection of the context in which it was used. But she merely
"thought" it must have referred to her since she was the only black nearby at
the time.26 Though the plaintiff had at the time been working at the defendant's
office for some six months, she testified to no other occasions when she
asserted she had heard anyone use the word "nigger" and certainly she testified
to no racial slurs that had been directed to her by any fellow employees or by
her superiors. In Johnson v. Bunny Bread Co., supra, the plaintiff, asserted a
constructive discharge based on harassment consisting largely of racial slurs.
The Court, in dismissing the claim said (646 F.2d at 1257):

82 find no steady barrage of opprobrious racial comment. The use, if any, of racial
"We
terms was infrequent, was limited to casual conversation among employees, and
with possible rare exceptions was not directed toward appellants. '(M)ore than a few
isolated incidents of harassment must have occurred. Racial comments that are
merely part of casual conversation, are accidental, or are sporadic do not trigger
Title VII's sanctions.' ... Such racial slurs as were present at Bunny Bread were
largely the result of individual attitudes and relationships which, while certainly not
to be condoned, simply do not amount to violations of Title VII."
83

Certainly the evidence in this case is a "far cry" from that in Bunny Bread. At
best, there was a single "accidental" or "sporadic" use of the term "nigger" and
the context in which it was used is not indicated. Apparently, if used, it was
used as "merely part of casual conversation." There is no evidence that the
term, if used, had any reference to the plaintiff. Even the plaintiff merely says
she "thought" it referred to her. This single episode, if it did occur, representing
the utterance of a single racially objectionable comment heard by the plaintiff
over the entire period of her employment by the defendant cannot amount to
that degree of harassment which will support a finding of constructive
discharge because of racial bias.

84

The final circumstance relied on for a finding of constructive discharge

occurred at the conference with the plaintiff on June 3. The defendant amply
proved a lawful reason and justification for this session with the plaintiff. Since
the first of the year, the plaintiff had been absent from work on at least four
occasions. From January 7 until April 7, she, in effect, was on maternity leave.
When, on April 16 she was denied a reassignment of station, she took off from
April 17 until April 28. Two and a half weeks later she took off on May 15, 16
and 19. She claimed that Ms. Hart suggested she take off but Ms. Hart denied
this; and the record suggests no reason why Ms. Hart should have made any
such suggestion. Again, on May 28, 29 and 30, the plaintiff was absent from
work. When she returned to work on June 2, Ms. Hart inquired of the plaintiff
why she had been absent and was told that her child had been sick on some bad
milk she had purchased at an Eckerd's store. The plaintiff demanded that she be
paid for the days she had been off. Moreover, there is no dispute that the
plaintiff had, since April 16, when she threatened that she wasn't going to put
out "one hundred per cent," committed a large number of errors in her work.
The plaintiff later attempted to explain these errors by claiming that the
computer programs had been changed while she was absent and Ms. Hart had
refused to help her adjust to the changes. Ms. Hart denied any such request for
help. Whether Ms. Hart was correct in her testimony or not, the fact is that the
plaintiff was guilty of an excessive number of errors. Finally, the defendant was
concerned about the plaintiff's attitude to her work. Though not known to the
defendant, the plaintiff had already filed a complaint with the EEOC. This was
an obvious expression of her dissatisfaction with her job. She had already
demonstrated insubordination and defiance of authority. There was thus
abundant justification for a discussion with the plaintiff of her absenteeism,
poor work, and general work attitude. This evidence met the test for the
articulation of a lawful reason for the conference.

85

At the conference, Straughn and Ms. Hart sought some commitment from the
plaintiff of improved work attendance. The plaintiff's excuse for absenteeism
appears to have been generally the need to stay home with her child. Ms. Hart
and Straughn inquired into the arrangements she had made for taking care of
her child while she worked. Discussion turned to minor ailments of the child.
The two sides differ somewhat on what Ms. Hart and Straughn wanted in the
way of a commitment from the plaintiff about future absenteeism. There can be
no question that Ms. Hart and Straughn were seeking a promise from the
plaintiff of better attendance. The plaintiff claimed Ms. Hart and Straughn
wanted an absolute commitment of no absence. This does not seem borne out
by the record, since, if this were the case, there would have been no occasion
for the difference between her child's minor sicknesses and serious sicknesses
which developed in the discussion. The plaintiff's absenteeism was excessive

by any standard and the defendant had a perfect right to request a promise of
improvement by the plaintiff. The plaintiff, however, does not seem to have
taken kindly to the criticism directed at her. Tempers arose on both sides.
Straughn at this point brought Ms. Hanner into the conference, thinking that a
new person who had had no previous acquaintance with the problem might
mediate the difference. Ms. Hanner's presence appears to have had the reverse
effect. According to the defendant's witnesses, when Ms. Hanner indicated
some agreement with the position taken by Ms. Hart and Straughn, the plaintiff
dismissed Ms. Hanner, saying that it was obvious she was "on the side of the
whites." The plaintiff's version was that Ms. Hanner offended her by Ms.
Hanner's "terminology" in restating the plaintiff's position. Apparently what she
was suggesting was that Ms. Hanner was subtly disparaging the plaintiff's
expressions, as typical racial language, though the defendant, despite
considerable effort to do so, was unable to extract from the plaintiff any
statement of Ms. Hanner that could reasonably support such an inference by the
plaintiff. Whichever version is accepted, it is clear that this was the first time in
all the encounters between the plaintiff and her superiors that anything racial
had been injected into the relationship and it was injected by the plaintiff. Ms.
Hanner's reaction was to state that she had not understood that this conference
represented "a white-black situation." With this, the plaintiff demanded either
that a black or her lawyer be brought into the discussion, Ms. Hanner explained
there was no black supervisor available and that she did not think it fair to bring
a fellow employee into the discussion. The plaintiff then turned her back on the
others and refused to talk. Ms. Hanner said that if the plaintiff was unwilling to
talk to her, Ms. Hart and Straughn, perhaps she would be happier working
elsewhere. With that, the plaintiff uttered, according to the defendant's
witnesses, an obscenity and walked out.
86

Such was the testimony on which the district court made its finding of a
constructive discharge. As I have already said, the record was not, in my
opinion, sufficient to make out a prima facie case of constructive discharge
remediable under Title VII, but, whether it was or not, the defendant had made
a sufficient rebuttal under the Burdine rule to shift the burden of persuasion to
the plaintiff to establish by the preponderance of the evidence that the plaintiff
had been forced by "intolerable working conditions" imposed by the defendant
on the plaintiff with the motive and purpose of forcing the plaintiff to quit
because of the defendant's racial bias. The plaintiff made no real effort to show
upon the shift of the burden of persuasion to her that the defendant's
explanation of lawful motive was pretextual and that the constructive discharge
was the result of intentional discrimination. There simply was no attempt either
by the plaintiff or by the district court to follow the rule in Burdine, even
though, as Judge Friendly observes in Ste. Marie, this principle had "been clear

ever since McDonnell Douglas,"27 nor, for that matter, was there any attempt to
comply with it in the majority opinion. In fact, the majority opinion simply
sweeps the doctrine "under the rug" and, without any review of the record or of
the defendant's evidence (an error which was equally true of the district court),
affirmed the plaintiff's claim on the district court's finding under the clearly
erroneous rule. I submit Burdine requires more of us as well as of the district
court.
87

The record in this case provides not the slightest basis for a finding of a
constructive discharge violation of Title VII. The repeated evidence of
consideration for the plaintiff by her superiors demonstrates conclusively that
the defendant was not seeking to force the plaintiff to quit or to impose on her
intolerable working conditions. The plaintiff's superiors bent the rule on
maternity leave to give special treatment favoring the plaintiff. Even as the
plaintiff details the facts, the only time the plaintiff experienced any difficulties
in her job was for a period between April 10 and April 16, when the defendant
refused to change her work station. There is, however, not any evidence that, in
refusing to make this change for the plaintiff, the defendant was acting any
differently from its usual treatment of such requests. Further, whatever
difficulties the plaintiff may have had with Ms. Baker (who, incidentally, was
smaller than the plaintiff) were free of any racial aspects. I assume this because
the plaintiff testified to none. Moreover, if the defendant had any covert desire
to rid itself of the plaintiff as an employee, the plaintiff provided the defendant
with the perfect justification for firing her. One may find it difficult to
understand why Straughn did not fire the plaintiff on April 16 when she
threatened him that she was not going to give a "hundred percent" to her job.
Later, the plaintiff's absenteeism and work errors were excessive and the
defendant cannot be faulted for requesting of the plaintiff more attention to her
job. When any racial overtones were introduced into the conference, they were
introduced by the plaintiff. I submit, with all deference for the views of my
fellow panel members, that there is insufficient evidence to make out a prima
facie case of constructive discharge and, were there such evidence, the
defendant articulated lawful reasons for its actions and, contrary to the district
court's conclusion, it rebutted the plaintiff's prima facie case and the burden of
establishing her claim shifted back to the plaintiff under Burdine. The plaintiff
made no effort to take up her burden of showing that the reasons given by the
defendant were pretextual and a cloak for intentional discrimination.
Accordingly, this individual claim of constructive discharge, just as Ms. Ivey's
claim, should be dismissed; and, since the findings on which the decision rested
were tainted by legal error on the burden of proof, that decision cannot be
affirmed under the clearly erroneous rule. See Owen and Piedmont Minerals,
supra.

IV
88

The affirmance of the district court's decision on the class action aspect of the
proceeding is, in my opinion, as manifestly erroneous as the affirmance of the
decision on the individual claims of Ivey and Brown. In affirming the class
action part of the decision, the majority proceeds on the assumption that Brown
and Black (and only Brown and Black) were appropriate representatives of the
entire class certified by the district court; it expressly refused to consider the
claimant Ivey as a proper class representative as a result of her post-trial
intervention. In short, then, the propriety of the class certification and the class
relief depends on the qualification of Brown and Black as class representatives
for the class certified by the district court.

89

Both Brown and Black had been hired by the defendant and had worked for
some time for the defendant; both had been discharged. Their individual claims
were accordingly that their discharges had been tainted by racial bias and that
only. Over the defendant's objections, the district court (by an order dated
March 3, 1977), tentatively certified in reliance on Barnett v. W.T. Grant
Company, 518 F.2d 543 (4th Cir. 1975), Black and Brown as proper class
representatives to prosecute the action on behalf of a class consisting of:

90

"The class shall consist of plaintiff and all blacks in the Mecklenburg County
facilities of defendant and its wholly owned subsidiary, Eckerd Providence,
Inc., who have since January 18, 1975, or may have been affected by
discrimination by defendant Eckerd Drugs, Inc. or its wholly owned subsidiary
Eckerd Providence Inc. on the basis of race in connection with hiring,
promotion, termination, job assignment, and geographical assignment; the class
includes all blacks so affected who (a) are currently employed by defendant
Eckerd Drugs, Inc. or its wholly owned subsidiary Eckerd Providence, Inc.; (b)
have been employed by defendant Eckerd Drugs, Inc. or its wholly owned
subsidiary Eckerd Providence, Inc.; since January 18, 1975, and have been
terminated or otherwise left defendant Eckerd Drugs employment; or (c) have
applied for employment with defendant Eckerd Drugs, Inc. or its wholly owned
subsidiary Eckerd Providence, Inc. at any time since January 18, 1975 and were
denied employment."

91

On May 24, 1977, it finally certified the class as described in its tentative order
of March 3. Later, on July 26, 1979, after this Court decided Hill v. Western
Elec. Co., Inc., 596 F.2d 99 (4th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 929, 100
S.Ct. 271, 62 L.Ed.2d 186, the district court amended its certification by
eliminating from the class certified all "(a)pplicants for initial employment" as
described in paragraphs 16 and 18 of its Memorandum of Decision. Further, in

its Memorandum of Decision itself, the District Court had found that the
plaintiffs had "not established any general discriminatory pattern or policy as to
discharges, layoffs, demotions, pay or working conditions." Later, in its
Findings of Fact, entered in support of its Memorandum of Decision, the
District Court confirmed its finding that no pattern of discrimination had been
proved "as to discharges, layoffs, demotions, pay or working conditions," and
dismissed any claims of persons claiming discriminatory failure to hire because
such persons failed to qualify as class members. Thus, the only class members
found to be entitled to relief were "(c)lass members who have claims for
promotion and transfer into management or supervisory jobs at any of the
facilities" involved. In essence, then, the only class claims in this case relate to
promotions, nothing more.
92

Hill made it the rule of this Circuit that a named representative " 'must possess
the same interest(s) and suffer the same injury' as the class members they seek
to represent." 28 Thus, one who is employed may not represent as a class
representative those who were not hired. The district court recognized this and
held that the named representatives in this case, both of whom had been
employed, could not represent as a class representative persons who claimed
discrimination in hiring. The majority affirms this ruling and I assume agrees
with the district court's ruling. But the district court held and the majority on
this appeal agrees, that employees who never requested or sought promotion or
who made any claim to a promotion but whose sole claim is that they were
discriminatorily discharged can represent the class of employees who were
denied promotion. This, I submit, is clearly contrary to Hill. I, accordingly
submit that the plaintiffs in this case were no more qualified under Hill to
represent the class of persons denied promotion than they were to represent the
class of persons not hired.

93

The majority, however, declares that Hill "did not preclude an employee who
suffers some particularized employment discrimination grievance from
representing other employees who present factually differing claims that,
nevertheless, proceed on the same legal theory of race discrimination" and its
proceeds to resurrect Barnett v. W. T. Grant Co., supra, 518 F.2d 543 as
authority for this. The language used by the majority, it is true, is an accurate
statement of the ruling in Barnett but it most emphatically is not a formulation
of the ruling in Hill. As a matter of fact, Hill very plainly overruled Barnett on
the very ruling stated by the majority. In Hill, the plaintiffs-employees sought
to proceed on the same legal theory of race discrimination as did the plaintiffs
here (i. e., "that the company had engaged in a pattern of discrimination against
blacks and females in hiring, in job assignments, and in promotions to salaried
and supervisory positions in its facilities in Arlington, Virginia)"29 and to

represent as a class representative all blacks and females discriminated against

as a result of such broad claim of "race discrimination." The actual
discrimination suffered by the plaintiffs, however, related to promotions. The
Court in Hill said unequivocally that East Texas Motor Freight v. Rodriguez,
431 U.S. 395, 97 S.Ct. 1891, 52 L.Ed.2d 453 (1977) had limited the rule stated
in Barnett, declaring that:
94

"What is left of Barnett, however, is not broad enough to permit a named

representative to represent a class of people who suffered different injury or
those having similar claims but who are employed in other facilities."30

95

Specifically, thus, we held in Hill that the plaintiffs in that case could represent
as a class representative only that class of employees who had "suffered injury
in precisely the same way in the denial of promotion," but they could not
represent as class representative employees suffering discrimination of another
type, such as hiring.

96

In fact, the construction given the opinion of the Supreme Court in Rodriguez,
by Hill had already been suggested by this Court by way of dictum in Shelton v.
Pargo, Inc., 582 F.2d 1298, 1312-13 (4th Cir. 1978), particularly n. 53, and
Belcher v. Bassett Furniture Industries, Inc., 588 F.2d 904, 906, n. 3 (4th Cir.
1978). And in United Black Firefighters of Norfolk v. Hirst, 604 F.2d 844 (4th
Cir. 1979), we subsequently reached the same result and applied the same rule
as in Hill. In that case, the plaintiff asserted an "across-the-board"
discrimination claim involving "recruiting, hiring, job classification,
assignment, promotion, transfer, layoff, recall, discipline, discharge, benefits,
training programs, compensation, testing, and condition of employment."
However, the only specific complaint of the representative plaintiffs was one
"of discrimination in promotion."31 The Court refused to certify and on appeal
we held, quoting from Rodriguez, that "(s)o far as the applications are
concerned, the class action was properly rejected. Three named employeesplaintiffs have stated claims of discrimination in promotion. On remand the
court should determine whether the employees- plaintiffs may represent as a
class those who are similarly situated.32 Thus, though the complaint in that case
alleged an "across-the-board" discrimination claim, the court held that, since
the only named plaintiffs with a discrimination claim were employees
complaining of discrimination in promotion, the only class that could be
certified was one having a claim of denial in promotion. Accordingly, before
Hill, we had declared the same rule as was enunciated in Hill, albeit by way of
dicta in Shelton and Belcher,33 and after Hill, we had declared and followed in
Hirst the rule as enunciated in Hill.

97

I would not be misunderstood. I do not suggest that the application of

Rodriguez as stated in Hill is the only one that has been adopted by the Courts
of Appeals. I recognize that there are two lines of authority on the issues. These
two lines of authority with their different approaches to Rodriguez were marked
out with precision in The Proper Scope of Representation in Title VII Class
Actions: A Comment on East Texas Motor Freight System, Inc. v. Rodriguez,
13 Harv.C.R.-C.L.L.Rev. 175 at 177 (1978). The author identified the first as
the "across-the-board" rule, under which "plaintiffs who alleged 'across-theboard' " "racial discrimination (are) permitted to represent all persons, however
situated, who were affected by an employer's discriminatory policies." Under
the other approach, known as the "same impact" doctrine, "only those suffering
the 'same impact' as the plaintiff-for instance, a discriminatory refusal to hirecould properly be considered members of the plaintiff's class." Id., at 177.
Courts are in dispute with respect to which approach expresses the majority
construction of Rodriguez.34 That argument, it appears to me, is unimportant
for us. Hill and Hirst have committed us to the "same impact" approach. And
this is the way in which the other Circuits have construed the rule in this
Circuit. Thus, in Falcon v. General Tel. Co. of Southwest, 626 F.2d 369, 375
(5th Cir. 1980), Hill is cited as stating the rule in this Circuit. The same is true
in Vuyanich v. Republic Nat. Bank, Dallas, supra, 505 F.Supp. at 235-36 and in
82 F.R.D. at 433, n. 8. In fact, no court has suggested that the rule in this
Circuit is different than as expressed in Hill.

98

I feel compelled, however, to say that I perceive in the majority opinion and in
other opinions in the wings a disposition to overturn or at least erode the ruling
in Hill by drowning it in interpretations contradictory of its clearly expressed
holding. One evidence of this is the resurrection of that part of Barnett, which
was specifically found in Hill to be contrary to Rodriguez. It is obvious, I
submit, that Hill and Barnett both cannot stand and, if precedent is to have any
meaning in our collegiate court, one or the other of these cases must be
followed. Since Hill is our latest expression and declared Barnett no longer the
law of this Circuit, I would assume we should follow Hill, until it has been
overturned in the proper way.

99

Along this same line, I think it unfortunate that, in attempting to resolve

whether an employee with a special grievance can qualify as a class
representative of an across-the-board class, we look to pre-Rodriguez Circuit or
District Court decisions. There can be no question that Rodriguez represented a
watershed decision on this point. The article in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil
Liberties Law Review, cited by the majority, recognizes this.35 Moreover, as we
have seen, there are decisions subsequent to Rodriguez which take the same
view of that decision as we did in Hill and others such as Falcon, cited by the

majority, which take a contrary view. I, however, find it somewhat odd that the
majority cites and follows Falcon, when that decision points out that the rule in
this Circuit as stated in Hill is contrary to that taken in Falcon. It is normal
practice to look to decisions of other circuits for guidance on subjects on which
our circuit has not expressed itself and, as I have said, I think it unusual that,
when we have a number of decisions-not simply Hill, but Hirst, as well, and in
addition several dicta in other decisions-we should look to contrary decisions of
another circuit for guidance.
100 There is another suggestion in the majority opinion I find disturbing. The right
of the two named plaintiffs to represent a class complaining of promotion
discrimination, even though the named plaintiffs' own grievance is
discriminatory discharge, is said to exist because, if the named plaintiffs are
reinstated, they could at some future time possibly suffer discrimination in
promotion. Such a suggestion is no more than saying that any employee, even
though he has no individual grievance, may maintain a class action charging
"across-the-board" discrimination. I find such a suggestion a plain violation of
the whole structure of Title VII. That Title not merely contemplates, it expressly
requires, that a plaintiff under that Title, have an individual complaint and
assert an individual grievance. And the defendant is entitled to notice of that
individual grievance and to an opportunity to conciliate. These are not empty
gestures as the Second Circuit made plain in the recent case of E. E. O. C. v.
Sears, Roebuck & Co., 650 F.2d 14, 18-19 (2d Cir. 1981). These requirements
of the statute just won't jibe with this suggestion in the majority opinion.
Further, I have difficulty in finding how this suggestion can be reconciled with
the Article III requirement of an actual, live controversy between the plaintiff
and the defendant.36
101 Equally open to objection is the suggestion that it is of no moment whether
certification was authorized or not, if the discrimination claim has been tried
and discrimination found. It would be a waste of judicial time, it is argued, to
reverse under these circumstances, thereby necessitating a new case and a new
trial with a new plaintiff in order to redress what Congress has found to be a
public evil. We all will agree that discrimination is a public evil, but this does
not mean that sound rules of procedure as mandated by Rule 23 are to be
abandoned in individual (as distinguished from EEOC) discrimination cases.
What this suggestion means, I submit, is that district courts should give only
perfunctory consideration to certification requirements in these discrimination
cases, should tentatively certify them pro forma, should try the case and, if
discrimination is proved, any error in the certification is thereby cured. This is a
procedure not approved in Hill and Hirst. In both Hill and Hirst there had been
a trial but that fact didn't prevent the court from reversing the judgments in both

cases because of error in the certification. At least one commentator, however,

has found that in Stastny v. Southern Bell Tel. & Tel Co., 628 F.2d 267, 277
(4th Cir. 1980), we held "that Rodriguez does not apply to pretrial certification
orders." Karro, The Importance of Being Earnest: Pleading and Maintaining a
Title VII Class Action for the Purpose of Resolving the Claims of Class
Members, 49 Ford.L.Rev. 904, 943 (1981). I think the commentator has
mistaken our holding in Stastny. Certainly the requirements of Rule 23 are just
as applicable to discrimination cases as to any others and this was as true before
Rodriguez as after Rodriguez. It was expressly so held in Rodriguez.
102 Nor is certification ever a perfunctory act, as the majority seems to assume. We
have made this crystal clear in a number of cases, Doctor v. Seaboard Coast
Line R. Co., supra, 540 F.2d at 706-07; Windham v. American Brands, Inc.,
565 F.2d 59, 64, n. 6 (4th Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 968, 98 S.Ct. 1605,
56 L.Ed.2d 58; Shelton v. Pargo, Inc., supra, 582 F.2d at 1312-15; Belcher v.
Bassett Furniture Industries, Inc., supra, 588 F.2d at 906. Of these, Shelton v.
Pargo reviews the issue in considerable depth. To follow a view that it is
irrelevant whether certification was proper or not if discrimination at trial is
later established would mean that Rule 23 would be without meaning or effect
and would be just a jumble of words stated in hypocritical mandatory terms.
District Courts could at their discretion proceed on the bare allegations of the
complaint and, whether certification was proper or not, the subsequent class
trial will not be reversed if class discrimination is found. That certainly, I
submit, is not the law of this Circuit nor does it accord with the best thought on
the subject.37 It is, of course, regrettable that the trial is aborted but this is no
more unfortunate than the reversal of the judgment on the merits in Ste. Marie
v. Eastern R. Ass'n, supra, 650 F.2d 395, because the district court had not
followed the procedure declared in Burdine.
103 The plaintiffs in this case have sought to find support in our decisions of Cox38
and Goodman,39 for the right of Brown and Black, neither of whom had any
claim of discrimination in promotion, to represent a class asserting such claim.
Both of these cases preceded the decision in U. S. Parole Comm'n v. Geraghty,
445 U.S. 388, 100 S.Ct. 1202, 63 L.Ed.2d 479 (1980), while the Circuit and
District Courts were still struggling with the so-called "headless" class action,
in which the individual claim of the class representative had been dismissed.
That situation prompted the argument that the class action itself should be
dismissed if, on appeal, it was determined the individual claim of the class
representative was meritless. It must be noted at the outset, though, that in
those cases the class representative had alleged properly an individual claim
and that the class of which he had been certified as a class representative was
composed strictly of those with a like claim to that of the class representative.

There was thus no defect in the certification. The question was whether the
loss, after trial, of his individual claim, required the dismissal of the class
action. We felt it was contrary to the policy of Title VII to dismiss the perfectly
valid class certification under those circumstances and so we formulated the
rule that, in such a case, we would hold the case in abeyance for a reasonable
time in order to give some proper class representative a reasonable opportunity
to come forward and replace the original class representative.
104 But-and this is the point the plaintiffs overlook in discussing Cox and
Goodman : we only extended the opportunity to intervene to persons who had a
similar claim of discrimination to that of the original plaintiff; there was no
opportunity to enlarge by way of a belated intervention the class to present any
discriminatory claim other than that asserted by the original plaintiff. That was
made perfectly plain in Goodman where, in remanding the action, we instructed
the district court that the action should "be retained on the docket for a
reasonable time to permit a proper plaintiff or plaintiffs, with grievances similar
to those of Goodman, Debrew, or Mrs. Martin, in person, to present himself to
prosecute the action as a class representative" (Emphasis added). 40 Geraghty
made it unnecessary to go through this procedure, since it held that, after
certification, the class representative presents two claims, one being his
individual claim and the other his class claim, and the dismissal or mootness of
the individual claim will not moot the class claim; the class representative may
continue to press his class claim but only the class claim which he can properly
assert, i. e., one asserting a discrimination suffered by him.41
105 Finally, I do not urge that Hill must be followed forever in this Circuit. Though
I should regret it since I agree with the decisions in Hill and Hirst, I accept the
right of a majority of this Court to overrule Hill and Hirst -but I submit it cannot
be overruled by what appears to me to be improper distinctions, but only by an
en banc court and certainly can only be done if we are to give the decision in
Rodriguez a different construction than did this Court in Hill and Hirst. Until
Hill and Hirst are reversed by an en banc court, I submit we should follow
them. To do otherwise is to create confusion in the law for both litigants and
district courts, and to leave the rights of the parties to depend on the panel as
constituted. I do not think any member of the Court wants this.
V
106 Finally, I submit that the district court erred in finding class discrimination in
this case. In the first place, the two named plaintiffs had concededly suffered
no injury by a denial of promotion. One had been promoted, the other made no
claim of qualification for promotion. The actual injury claimed by both of the

plaintiffs was discriminatory discharge, not promotion discrimination. More

importantly, the record does not identify a single individual employee who had
a valid claim of promotion discrimination. This, however, was not because of
any lack of effort to discover one. On June 14, 1977 the district court "entered
an order allowing a bifurcated trial wherein the first stage was to determine the
liability of the defendant Company, if any, to the plaintiffs and class members."
Notices of such action were sent to 466 persons, employees in the classes
designated in the certificate, advising them that, if they had suffered any injury
within the class certification they would have a claim. The Court then declared
that "(t)he following class members presented claims" pursuant to such notice,
identifying them. Only one of those filed a claim of promotion discrimination
and that one the district court found was, by her own admissions, unqualified
for promotion (Janice Orr Mackey). In essence, then, we have here a finding of
class discrimination in promotion under a complaint filed by complainants who
had admittedly suffered no promotion discrimination and after a trial in which
not a single employee with a valid complaint of a promotion discrimination,
even though any employee with such a claim had been invited and solicited by
the court itself to assert it, came forward to assert such a claim. In the face of
that record, how did the district court find class-wide discrimination in
promotion?
107 The bases for the district court's finding are two facts only: 1. The defendant's
method of selection was subjective; and 2. The statistical evidence. It would
seem that the challenge to the subjective method of promotion would be
answered effectively by the failure of the plaintiffs to find one single employee
who had been discriminated against in promotion, even though every minority
employee in the relevant units had been solicited to file a claim of promotion
discrimination.42 The second circumstance is somewhat odd. The district court
simply looks at the over-all employment statistics of the defendant at the
relevant facilities, stated in racial terms, and then compares it with the racial
distribution of supervisory jobs in those facilities. On that basis, the court found
that there was an imbalance in the racial composition, which could only be
accounted for by racial discrimination in promotion. I pass over the question
whether the record, in which all employees are considered equally qualified for
promotion, and turn to the question of whether such statistics, unsupported by a
single identifiable instance of discrimination, can be deemed to supply a basis
for a valid finding of promotion discrimination. I submit it may not.
108 This is a case, to put it bluntly, where a court has erected a structure of
promotion discrimination without absolutely any proof of such discrimination,
and, on that basis, has imposed on this defendant a burden of continuous
reporting to, and surveillance of its operations by, the district court. I submit,

however, that the record in this case, which reveals not one instance of
discrimination in promotion, despite the most persistent effort to find one, does
not warrant such an imposition either on the defendant or on our limited judicial
resources.
CONCLUSION
109 I submit that both the judgments on the individual claims and on the class
claim as granted by the district court should be reversed and set aside and the
action dismissed.

No appeal was taken from the denial of Black's individual claim nor from the
denial of individual relief to several other class members who presented claims
at trial. Nor do the plaintiffs contest the various modifications of the class

Before 1973 only one black (Dorothy Black) had been employed in a
managerial capacity outside the warehouse. Except for Almetta Ivey, no black
at the time of judgment had ever held a supervisory position in the main office.
Of Eckerd's 97 supervisory positions in the main office and stores in 1975, 3
(3.09%) were occupied by black persons. Warehouse employees fared
significantly better. In 1975, of the 158 workers in the warehouse, 43 (27.6%)
were black. Of what were apparently 13 warehouse management or supervisory
personnel that year, 3 (23%) were black

We emphasize the necessity to evaluate the plaintiff's prima facie case as a

whole. To evaluate each piece of evidence seriatim, the practice followed in the
dissent, would impose an impossible and improper burden on the plaintiff

The defendant does not contend that Brown, who worked in the main office,
and Black, who worked in a retail store, are, simply on geographical grounds,
ineligible to represent warehouse employees complaining of exclusion from
supervising positions. See Hill v. Western Electric, supra, 596 F.2d at 102-03.
But see Patterson v. American Tobacco Co., 535 F.2d 257 (4th Cir. 1976), cert.
denied, 429 U.S. 920, 97 S.Ct. 314, 50 L.Ed.2d 286 (1976) (two plants of same
employer treated as single facility for purpose of class action representation).
We note, in any event, that the relevant labor market for supervisory positions
in all three operations was comparable

That Brown and Black are former employees does not affect their capacity to
represent current employees. See Jenkins v. Blue Cross Mutual Hosp. Ins., Inc.,
538 F.2d 164, 169 (7th Cir. 1976) (en banc), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 986, 97
S.Ct. 506, 50 L.Ed.2d 598 (1976); Wetzel v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 508 F.2d

239, 247 (3d Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 421 U.S. 1011, 95 S.Ct. 2415, 44 L.Ed.2d
679 (1975); Rich v. Martin Marietta Corp., 522 F.2d 333, 340 (10th Cir. 1975).
Cf. United States Parole Comm'n v. Geraghty, 445 U.S. 388, 100 S.Ct. 1202,
63 L.Ed.2d 479 (1980) (former prisoner no longer subject to Parole
Commission guidelines has standing to appeal denial of class certification)
6

Patterson v. General Motors Corp., 631 F.2d 476 (7th Cir. 1980), cert. denied, -- U.S. ----, 101 S.Ct. 1988, 68 L.Ed.2d 304 (1981), does not alter the Seventh
Circuit's support for broad Rule 23 standing where an employee raises
complaints about general employment practices that affect other employeespast, present or potential-as well as himself. See, e.q., Crockett, supra, 534 F.2d
715. In Patterson, the complaint alleged facts that "relate(d) solely to plaintiff's
personal grievances," and the appeals court held that where such a plaintiff "has
simply asserted no facts relating to other members of the purported class," the
district court's denial of class certification was not an abuse of discretion. 631
F.2d at 480-81 (emphasis in original)

Although plaintiff Black failed at trial to prove her individual claim, her loss
does not moot or destroy the class claims. As the Supreme Court has stated:
Obviously, a different case would be presented if the District Court had
certified a class and only later had it appeared that the named plaintiffs were not
class members or were otherwise inappropriate class representatives. In such a
case, the class claims would have already been tried, and, provided the initial
certification was proper and decertification not appropriate, the claims of the
class members would not need to be mooted or destroyed because subsequent
events or the proof at trial had undermined the named plaintiffs' individual
claims. See, e. g., Franks v. Bowman Transportation Co., 424 U.S. 747, 752757, 96 S.Ct. 1251, 1258-60, 47 L.Ed.2d 444 (1976); Moss v. Lane Co., 471
F.2d 853, 855-856 (CA4). Where no class has been certified, however, and the
class claims remain to be tried, the decision whether the named plaintiffs
should represent a class is appropriately made on the full record, including the
facts developed at the trial of the plaintiffs' individual claims. At that point, as
the Court of Appeals recognized in this case, "there (are) involved none of the
imponderables that make the (class-action) decision so difficult early in
litigation." 505 F.2d at 51. See also Cox v. Babcock & Wilcox Co., 471 F.2d
13, 15-16 (CA4).
East Texas Motor Freight v. Rodriguez, 431 U.S. 395, 406 n.12, 97 S.Ct. 1891,
1898 n.12, 52 L.Ed.2d 453 (1977). In addition, the Supreme Court has recently
held that the expiration of a named plaintiff's individual claim does not moot or
destroy putative class claims, and that such a plaintiff has standing to appeal a
denial of class certification. United States Parole Comm'n v. Geraghty, 445

U.S. 388, 100 S.Ct. 1202, 63 L.Ed.2d 479 (1980). See Satterwhite v. City of
Greenville, 578 F.2d 987 (5th Cir. 1978) (en banc) (holding that named plaintiff
who lost her individual Title VII claim on the merits before class certification
could not represent the putative class), vacated and remanded, 445 U.S. 940,
100 S.Ct. 1334, 63 L.Ed.2d 773 (1980), on remand, 634 F.2d 231 (5th Cir.
1981) (en banc).
8

See note 2, supra

Fed.R.Civ.P. 24(a):
Intervention of Right. Upon timely application anyone shall be permitted to
intervene in an action: (1) when a statute of the United States confers an
unconditional right to intervene; or (2) when the applicant claims an interest
relating to the property or transaction which is the subject of the action and he
is so situated that the disposition of the action may as a practical matter impair
or impede his ability to protect that interest, unless the applicant's interest is
adequately represented by existing parties.

10

Fed.R.Civ.P. 24(b):
Permissive Intervention. Upon timely application anyone may be permitted to
intervene in an action: (1) when a statute of the United States confers a
conditional right to intervene; or (2) when an applicant's claim or defense and
the main action have a question of law or fact in common. When a party to an
action relies for ground of claim or defense upon any statute or executive order
administered by a federal or state governmental officer or agency or upon any
regulation, order, requirement or agreement issued or made pursuant to the
statute or executive order, the officer or agency upon timely application may be
permitted to intervene in the action. In exercising its discretion the court shall
consider whether the intervention will unduly delay or prejudice the
adjudication of the rights of the original parties.

11

Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(d):
Orders in Conduct of Actions. In the conduct of actions to which this rule
applies, the court may make appropriate orders: ... (2) requiring, for the
protection of the members of the class or otherwise for the fair conduct of the
action, that notice be given in such manner as the court may direct to some or
all of the members of any step in the action, or of the proposed extent of the
judgment, or of the opportunity of members to signify whether they consider
the representation fair and adequate, to intervene and present claims or
defenses, or otherwise to come into the action; (3) imposing conditions on the
representative parties or on intervenors; ....

12

Nor can Eckerd complain that Ivey failed to exhaust Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) administrative procedures. Eckerd received
notice of EEOC charges filed by Brown and Black prior to the commencement
of the litigation. Brown's and Black's charges included complaints about the
defendant's practices concerning hiring, assignment, promotion, and
geographical assignment, among other employment practices. Their charges
encompassed Ivey's individual complaint. It is not necessary that each class
member, named plaintiff, or intervenor file charges with the EEOC. See
Wheeler v. American Home Products Corporation, 563 F.2d 1233, 1238-40
(5th Cir. 1977) ("If back pay may properly be awarded in a class action to
members of a class (who) do not meet the jurisdictional requisites, there seems
no reason, in an action not a class action, to deny back pay to intervenors who
do not meet the jurisdictional requisites"); Oatis v. Crown Zellerbach Corp.,
398 F.2d 496, 498 (5th Cir. 1968). In any event, Ms. Ivey filed an EEOC charge
on June 23, 1977, and received a right to sue letter on April 29, 1979; her
petition to intervene was granted on July 26, 1979

For the moment, I am disregarding the obvious fact that Ms. Ivey's claim is not
within the class certified by the District Court. The plaintiffs' counsel
recognized this and sought by an untimely attempt to correct it with a motion to
permit the filing of an amended complaint in favor of Ms. Ivey. For reasons
later discussed in connection with the class certification, I think Ms. Ivey's
claim should be dismissed on that ground, too

Texas Dept. of Community Affairs v. Burdine, --- U.S. ----, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 67
L.Ed.2d 207 (1981). For a subsequent decision applying Burdine, see Johnson
v. Bunny Bread Co., 646 F.2d 1250 (8th Cir. 1981)

Id., --- U.S. at ----, 101 S.Ct. at 1094

Id., --- U.S. at ----, 101 S.Ct. at 1094

Id., --- U.S. at ----, 101 S.Ct. at 1096

Id., 450 U.S. at 257, 101 S.Ct. at 1096

The actual language of the Court of Appeals, which was disapproved by the
Supreme Court, is quoted in note 11 of the Supreme Court's opinion. Id., 450
U.S. at 256, 101 S.Ct. at 1095:
" 'The court reviewed the defendant's evidence and explained its deficiency:
" 'Defendant failed to introduce comparative factual data concerning Burdine
and Walz. Fuller merely testified that he discharged and retained personnel in

the spring shakeup at TDCA primarily on the recommendations of subordinates

and that he considered Walz qualified for the position he was retained to do.
Fuller failed to specify any objective criteria on which he based the decision to
discharge Burdine and retain Walz. He stated only that the action was in the
best interest of the program and that there had been some friction within the
department that must be alleviated by Burdine's discharge. Nothing in the
record indicates whether he examined Walz' ability to work well with others.
This court in East found such unsubstantiated assertions of 'qualification' and
'prior work record' insufficient absent data that will allow a true comparison of
the individuals hired and rejected. 608 F.2d at 568."
8

Id., 450 U.S. at 256, 101 S.Ct. at 1095

Id., 450 U.S. at 256, 101 S.Ct. at 1095

10

Board of Trustees v. Sweeney, 439 U.S. 24, 25, 99 S.Ct. 295, 58 L.Ed.2d 216
(1978)

11

Furnco Construction Corp. v. Waters, 438 U.S. 567, 579-80, 98 S.Ct. 2943,
2950-51, 57 L.Ed.2d 957 (1978)

12

McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 800-01, 93 S.Ct. 1817,
1823, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973)

13

650 F.2d at 398-99

The same result was reached in Daye v. Harris, 655 F.2d 258 (D.C.Cir.1981).

14

In Rowe v. General Motors Corporation, 457 F.2d at 356, n. 15, the Court said:
"GM argues that the sole consideration for this Court is whether or not the
factual findings of the Trial Court were clearly erroneous under F.R.Civ.P.
52(a). But as we have so often pointed out, Ferran v. Flemming, 5 Cir., 1961,
293 F.2d 568; United States v. Pickett's Food Service, 5 Cir., 1966, 360 F.2d
338; Dilworth v. Riner, 5 Cir., 343 F.2d 226, and just so recently emphasized in
a Title VII case, United States v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., supra, 451 F.2d at
423-424, this does not apply to findings made under an erroneous view of
controlling legal principles."
For recent Title VII cases, applying the same rule, see Johnson v. Uncle Ben's,
Inc., supra, and Johnson v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 491 F.2d 1364, 1372,
n. 20 (5th Cir. 1974).

15

Blacks represented a larger proportion of the employees in the department than

their proportion in the Charlotte population area

16

The majority states that the defendant repeatedly complimented Ms. Ivey on her
work. Such statement is incredible in the light of the record. On every occasion
when the defendant reviewed the work performance of its employees as a basis
for pay increases, Ms. Ivey was told by her superiors that she was not going to
receive any increase in pay because her work was not adequate or satisfactory.
And Ms. Ivey admitted this. There was no clearer way in which the defendant
could have expressed its dissatisfaction with Ms. Ivey's performance than this.
In the face of this undisputed evidence, I simply cannot understand the
statement in the majority opinion

17

In her own testimony, Ms. Ivey sought to justify such failure by saying that she
knew it would be unavailing since Newsome was a sister-in-law of Whitworth,
the boss, though later she admitted that Newsome was related only to an
exsecretary of the boss. Moreover, Newsome left the department sometime
before there was a change in Ms. Ivey's status
The district court attempted to give some racial coloring to this incident by
comparing the conduct of Whitworth in refusing to intervene in this case with
that of Straughn in refusing to intervene by overruling supervisor Hart in the
Brown case, later discussed. The conduct of Whitworth and Straughn was not
inconsistent. The position taken by Whitworth was the same as that taken by
Straughn: In both cases Whitworth and Straughn refused to intervene to
overrule a subordinate supervisor or to direct the supervisor on how to direct
those in the subordinate's department; the position taken in both instances that
the action to be taken was for the subordinate supervisor and Whitworth and
Straughn, as the supervisors' superiors, would not intervene to supersede the
subordinates' supervisors' authority.

18

Whitworth's testimony on this point was:

"As I said, the reason I decided to change was because the work simply was not
getting done under Ms. Ivey. I knew that the system we were getting ready to
go on was much more detailed than the system that she had been unable to
handle before. So I saw no reason why I could expect her to handle the more
complicated system, when she couldn't handle the simple system we were on."

19

This Memorandum of Decision, entered a month or so after trial, was a

statement of the District Court's conclusion. Thus, it began the Memorandum
with this explanation:
"In accord with the foregoing, plaintiffs are directed to submit by June 30,
1978, proposed findings of fact, conclusions of law, and an appropriate order or

orders."
20

As phrased in Stevens, the doctrine of constructive discharge, as applied in the

labor relations area, was defined thus (461 F.2d at 494):
"Where an employer deliberately makes an employee's working conditions
intolerable and thereby forces him to quit his job because of union activities or
union membership, the employer has constructively discharged the employee in
violation of 8(a)(3) of the (National Labor Relations) Act."

21

The plaintiff testified that she did not know this was the policy of the
defendant. However, the testimony of the defendant that such was the policy
was undisputed. Moreover, it would not have been necessary for Ms. Hart to
seek permission from higher authority in order to grant this leave to the plaintiff
if there had not been such a policy

22

The plaintiff's testimony of her complaint as stated to Ms. Hart on April 10th
was:
"A. I just told her (Ms. Hart) that there was constantly bumping me and I had
made Mary (her neighbor at work) aware of it and she was still doing it and I
asked her if I could take one of the empty desks.
"Q. Okay, and she said she would change your seat around when she changed
the whole office, but that she couldn't do that in the middle of the week, right?
"A. She said that she would change my desk around when she changed the
whole office, period.
"Q. You said, 'Well, okay, that's acceptable.' right?
"A. Yes, I did."

23

Ms. Hart testified "(i)t was my custom to do this (move everyone around) to
break up people that did not get along or people that get along too well that it
hampered their work habits. I moved everyone at the same time."
It was a practice uniformly followed by Mrs. Hart and applied equally to both
black and white employees.

24

Neither the plaintiff nor the EEOC notified the defendant of this complaint
until just before this suit was filed

25

See note 23

26

The majority incorrectly states that Ms. Brown was referred to as a "nigger" by
Straughn. That does not accord with the record, and the district court corrected
the proposed Findings of Fact as submitted by plaintiffs' counsel on this point.
Ms. Brown testified that she did not know whether the term referred to her but
she "thought" it did, even though it was in no way addressed to her

27

650 F.2d at 399

28

596 F.2d at 101

29

596 F.2d at 100

30

596 F.2d at 102

31

604 F.2d at 846

32

604 F.2d at 848

33

See, also, Doctor v. Seaboard Coast Line R. Co., 540 F.2d 699 (4th Cir. 1976)

34

In Vuyanich v. Republic Nat. Bank, Dallas, 505 F.Supp. 224, 235-6,

(N.D.Tex.1980), the Court discusses the two lines of authority, states that
Falcon represents the rule in the Fifth Circuit, but adds: "The Fourth Circuit has
reached a contrary result, Hill v. Western Electric Co., 596 F.2d 99 (4th Cir.)
cert. denied, 444 U.S. 929, 100 S.Ct. 271, 62 L.Ed.2d 186 (1979) ...." It then
lists in footnote 10 a number of district court decisions reaching contrary
conclusions on this point
However, in Fields v. Village of Skokie, 502 F.Supp. 456, 460-61
(N.D.Ill.1980), the court said:
"Whether on Article III grounds or applying East Texas Motor Freight System,
Inc. v. Rodriguez, 431 U.S. 395, 97 S.Ct. 1891, 52 L.Ed.2d 453 (1977), most
Courts of Appeal that have considered the issue have held that a plaintiff
employee who challenges an employer's discriminatory promotion practices
may not represent a class complaining of discriminatory hiring practices
because such claims are insufficiently similar. Hill v. Western Electric Co.,
Inc., 596 F.2d 99, 101-2 (4th Cir. 1979) cert. denied, 444 U.S. 929, 100 S.Ct.
271, 62 L.Ed.2d 186 (1980); Chavez v. Tempe Union High School Dist. 213,
565 F.2d 1087, 1094, n. 10 (9th Cir. 1977); accord, Scott v. University of
Delaware, 601 F.2d 76, 87 n.23 (3d Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 931, 100
S.Ct. 275, 62 L.Ed.2d 189 (1980); cf. Tuft v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 581
F.2d 1304, 1308 (8th Cir. 1978) and Walker v. World Tire Corp., Inc., 563 F.2d
918, 922 (8th Cir. 1977). This Court does not agree with the minority view of

the Fifth Circuit, Falcon v. General Telephone Co. of the Southwest, 626 F.2d
369 (5th Cir. 1980)."
35

The majority cites this student Comment in support of its view of Rodriguez in
contradiction of that stated by us in Hill. What the writer in this Comment is
really arguing is, not so much that the construction of Rodriguez in Hill was
wrong but that the Supreme Court itself was wrong in Rodriguez. This is plain
in the first sentence in the Comment's concluding statement: "It is difficult to
justify the result reached in Rodriguez." Id. at 199. The Comment titled Class
Standing and the Class Representative, 94 Harv.L.Rev. 1637, 1642 (1981), is
likewise an argument against the decision in Rodriguez
I recognize the right of writers in Law Reviews to criticize and differ from the
decisions of the Supreme Court but I submit that is a privilege not allowed
Courts of Appeals or District Courts in the federal judicial system; it is our duty
to follow the decisions of the Supreme Court until those decisions are reversed
by the Supreme Court, Hicks v. Miranda, 422 U.S. 332, 344, 95 S.Ct. 2281,
2289, 45 L.Ed.2d 226 (1975), and that is precisely what we sought to do in
Hill.

36

See Bailey v. Patterson, 369 U.S. 31, 32-33, 82 S.Ct. 549, 550, 7 L.Ed.2d 512
(1962), as discussed in 84 Harv.L.Rev. at 1639, et seq., supra

37

In Shelton, supra, we cited and discussed a monograph prepared under the

auspices of the Judicial Center and authored by the leading scholar in the area
of class actions, Professor Arthur Miller. In line with the language of Justice
Stewart in Rodriguez, he repudiated any notion that certification under Rule 23
was ever a perfunctory matter. He declared that, in certifying a class, the Rule
required at least seven specific findings of fact, which, in the normal case,
could only be made on the basis of some inquiry into the facts of the case. All
of this careful procedure, as outlined by Professor Miller and as adopted by us
in Shelton and as declared in Rodriguez, would be nullified by any rule of
perfunctory certification merely because a claim of racial discrimination was
asserted. It may be that, following the procedure outlined by Professor Miller
would mean that a trial in an erroneously certified class action might be
aborted, despite a finding after trial that there had been class discrimination.
This might be regrettable but it is not a proper justification for setting aside the
clear requirements of Rule 23 any more than the ultimate result in Ste. Marie,
supra, was any justification for disregarding the procedure mandated in
Burdine. If the mandatory requirements of the Rule are to be disregarded and
set at naught because we think a correct result has been reached despite the
plain violation of the Rule before trial, there is no point in having any Rules. I
cannot believe the majority would subscribe to such a principle. Certainly, we

did not follow any such principle in Hill and Hirst

38

Cox v. Babcock & Wilcox, 471 F.2d 13 (4th Cir. 1973)

39

Goodman v. Schlesinger, 584 F.2d 1325 (4th Cir. 1978)

A like case is Simmons v. Brown, 611 F.2d 65 (4th Cir. 1979).

40

584 F.2d at 1332-33

This exact language as used in Cox and Goodman was repeated in Simmons,
611 F.2d at 67.

41

The majority seems to find something in Geraghty inconsistent with Rodriguez.

There is no inconsistency. The two decisions dealt with two entirely different
questions. Rodriguez involved the question whether a plaintiff who had not
suffered injury like that of the class he sought to represent could be a proper
class representative under Rule 23 and Article III. That is our question and it
was decided in the negative, which is what I submit should be the decision in
this case. In Geraghty, however, the plaintiff had suffered the same injury as
that asserted in the class claim both at the time he filed his suit and at the time
he sought class certification. In that specific situation the Supreme Court held
that the mere fact that subsequent to the denial of class certification the
plaintiff's individual claim became moot would not moot his appeal of the
denial of class certification-but the Supreme Court made it quite clear that "(i)f
the named plaintiff has no personal stake in the outcome at the time class
certification is denied, relation back of appellate reversal of that denial still
would not prevent mootness of the action" (Emphasis added), 445 U.S. 407,
n.11, 100 S.Ct. at 1212, n.11. And the Supreme Court repeated at the
conclusion of its opinion that "(i)f (on remand) the District Court again denies
class certification, and that decision is affirmed, the controversy on the merits
will be moot." 445 U.S. at 408, 100 S.Ct. at 1214. As the writer of the Note,
The Personal Stake Requirement in Federal Class Action Litigation, 33 Baylor
L.Rev. 337, 342, put it:
"The Court's decision in Geraghty is based upon a division of the personal stake
requirement into two distinct categories: (1) the named plaintiff's claim on the
merits, and (2) his claim that he is entitled to represent the class. A personal
stake is required for each" (Emphasis added).
The point of difference between the two cases is that in Rodriguez neither at
the time of the filing of the action nor at the time of the certification decision
had the class representative suffered the same injury as the class he sought to
represent and that, by way of contrast, in Geraghty, as the Supreme Court

repeatedly stated, the plaintiff had sustained the same injury as the class he
sought to represent as a class representative both at the time he filed his suit and
at the time the district court made its decision on class certification.
Rodriguez and Geraghty are not thus inconsistent; they are in fact perfectly
consistent and I would think it unseemly for us to assume that the Supreme
Court was unable to perceive such inconsistency and remove it, if there were
any. I can only assume that the Supreme Court found the two decisions
consistent and I submit we should accept that decision and not attempt to read
into the two decisions an inconsistency which the Supreme Court did not
perceive.
42

Cf., Knutson v. Boeing Co., 655 F.2d 999, 1000-01 (9th Cir. 1981) ("The
showing that Boeing used subjective selection criteria will not alone make out a
prima facie case of disparate impact")